The Road Back to You
by SLs-short-words
Summary: Summer's last few months with GEORGE, Taylor back in the country, and Kirsten and Julie worried about Sandy and Frank being distant and secretive... What does it take to travel the road back to the one you love? SS, RT, KS, JF
1. Chapter 1

**The road back to you**

Quick catch-up: This story takes place mid-final montage about four or five years after Summer leaves for GEORGE; Seth, Ryan and Taylor are off to school; Sophie's birth; and the Cohen's move.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or their televised backgrounds. Goes for all subsequent chapters.

All that's happened since the last episode should be found in some form of exposition in the story, but feel free to let me know if things get a little confusing. Feedback is always welcome, and while I know where I want to go with this story, that doesn't mean I can't be persuaded to change something if it doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks for reading and any reviews!

On to the story… (Don't worry, this won't be included in any of the following chapters)

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Chapter 1: And so it begins

And he thought his classes were long. Seth let out another sigh as he snuck a quick glance at the digital clock next to Ryan's bed. He'd been in his brother's dorm room for a little over an hour according to the little contraption, but Seth was sure that was a lie. It had been much longer than that. He'd been there forever waiting for Ryan to show up so he could unload the latest barrage of thoughts that were clouding his mind. The walls of the tiny dorm room—which he doubted was legally big enough to house two people—were slowly starting to close in on him.

If Ryan had any idea that he was in town, Seth would have started to wonder if his brother was simply delaying his return in order to make him suffer. Ryan didn't know Seth was in town, however, and he certainly had no reason to think that Seth was waiting for him in his room. Perhaps if he had, there would have been a few comic books or something the least bit interesting waiting there to keep him occupied.

Instead, Seth had read the newspaper in his hand from the first page to the last, pausing to read the article about GEORGE's latest exploits five times, fixing his eyes on Summer's name as she was quoted at least a dozen, and giving up on the crossword puzzle three. He was done with the paper.

He was about to let out another sigh, when he heard the doorknob turn. He winced for a moment, hoping it would be Ryan and not his roommate.

"Hey," Seth nodded when his brother entered the room.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

"We have to talk."

"How did you get in?" Ryan asked, throwing his books onto his bed as he moved to turn on his laptop. That was about all there was to the room. Two beds, two desks with laptops and one dresser.

"I have a key." Seth shrugged.

"Where did you get a key?"

Seth's eyes wandered around the room for a moment. "That's not what I'm here to talk about."

"This is about Summer, isn't it?" Ryan asked with a quick glance at Seth before he returned his scowling attention to something on his computer screen.

"What makes you say that?"

"You have your Summer face on."

"My Summer face?" Seth scrunched his nose as he asked, trying to feel his Summer face since there was no mirror in the room to help him see.

"Yeah. The face you make when you want to talk about something you have to fix between you and Summer. The face that is both happy because you're thinking about Summer, and terrified because you're still convinced there's a chance the girl might kick you to the curb despite the fact that you've been going out long enough that you should have realised by now that she's completely in love with you and that you guys are never going to break up."

Seth shook his head. "Remember when you didn't really used to talk, and you'd just listen? I'm kind of looking for that Ryan right now."

Ryan shrugged.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. Besides, I'm not in trouble with Summer."

"Then you think you're about to be."

"I'm not. I'm… I'm going to ask her to marry me."

Ryan finally turned to give Seth his full attention. He looked his friend up and down for a minute and let a wide grin spread across his face. "Good for you, man. That's great."

"I'm afraid she's going to say no."

Ryan's smile fell. "Are you nuts? Besides, you've already proposed once. What's the big deal?"

"She refused once."

"You were nineteen."

"Your point being?"

Ryan rolled his eyes and took a deep breath as he moved to sit next to Seth on the bed. He moved his arm toward his friend, then changed his mind realising how uncomfortable he would be sitting on the bed with his arm around Seth no matter what they were talking about.

"Look, you're going to propose to Summer, she's going to say yes, and you two are going to have the most beautiful and environmentally friendly wedding ever."

"Right. Exactly. Because she is going to say yes."

"She is going to say yes."

"Great." Seth nodded, his eyes drifting off in the distance.

"Fantastic."

"I'm going to propose."

"That's what we just said," Ryan agreed, getting up off the bed and moving to gather the books he would need for his next class.

"So how exactly do I do that?"

Ryan looked over at Seth. Seth nodded slowly, his lower lip curled in his mouth.

"I see you still have your scowl."

* * *

"Hi."

"Hey." Summer smiled up at the girl hovering over the desk she'd taken over as soon as they had arrived at the hotel. If there was one thing Summer Roberts had quickly learned in the past few years, it was how to make herself at home anywhere, including the lobby of a cheap hotel where people gave her and her stacks of papers weird looks.

"I don't want to bother you but… Actually, you know what. I can just—"

"What do you need, Jessica?" Summer asked before the girl could retreat too far away.

"It's a really stupid question."

"Then I might actually know the answer." Summer smiled, nodding her head toward a nearby chair so Jessica would pull it over. "Come on."

Jessica smiled shyly before finally taking a seat. She pulled her long auburn hair away from her freckled face and tied it back. Then she reached for a stack of papers in her backpack and laid them out in front of them. "I don't think I understand the catering part."

"Catering?"

"Food."

"I know what catering means." Summer smiled again. "What don't you understand about it?"

"Well, I'm supposed to be organising the rally for next Friday, right?" Jessica waited until Summer nodded before she continued. "Well, I've got most of the stuff down, and I did it just like you told me to, but I don't understand how we're going to feed this many people. How do we get food for them all?"

"Most likely we don't."

"What?"

"We probably won't have any food for them."

Jessica shook her head as she leafed through the papers again. "But, we're asking hundreds of people to come out and protest with us all day. How can we ask them to stay with us all that time if we aren't going to feed them?"

"It's a protest," Summer shrugged. "They'll have to bring their own food. We may be able to get some local deli or something to donate some stuff for the protest so they can get some advertisement out of it, but most likely we won't have any food to offer."

"Oh," Jessica sighed.

Summer felt her smile widen, remembering a few years back when a very similar realisation had washed over her during her first few days with GEORGE. She shrugged.

"People are used to it. You'll see when you get there. No one should be surprised that you aren't feeding a crowd of hundreds at an event that isn't going to rake in any money whatsoever."

"Right." Jessica sighed. "Because everyone's been doing this for so long and I'm just the newbie."

"We like to call you freshmen," a male voice sounded above them. "Don't worry though. You'll get used to it."

Both girls looked up to find Matthew smiling down at them. Summer grinned back as Jessica cowered shyly away.

"We'll throw you in the fire quickly enough for you to learn to swim, though," Matthew finished.

Jessica's eyes narrowed as she thought about it for a moment, then she smiled shyly, thanked Summer under her breath, and snuck away before anything more could be said.

"You really shouldn't be scaring the freshmen, you know," Summer chided as Matthew spread himself out on the chair Jessica had vacated. "You're going to be counting on them to get everything done soon enough."

"I'm hoping that if I can prove they're all incompetent, you'll decide not to leave." He stretched his legs out, apologizing with a wink when he made contact with Summer's foot.

Summer rolled her eyes as she scooted away from him. Matthew was huge. He was tall and broad and about the size of two Cohens, as Summer liked to measure men. He was a bit of an ass, but most people didn't seem to mind. Matthew was charming enough to convince them not to put him on any black lists despite his underhanded schemes.

"It's not going to happen, Matthew."

"But we're your family, Summer." He smiled at her and leaned over to rest his head on her shoulder.

"You were like my family, sure, but it's time to move on."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is." She moved her arm so her shoulder bumped against his head and he moved away from her. "I don't even know half the people we work with anymore. Besides, they all make me feel old. They're all eighteen and eager to change the world. I'm twenty-five and ready to live somewhere that doesn't have wheels under it."

"You're twenty-four and still eager to change the world."

"I am," Summer agreed as she shuffled the papers Jessica had disturbed when avoiding her gaze. "But I'm ready to do it from one spot, using the PR degree I managed to earn while doing this crazy tour. I need a break from waving signs and yelling at people. It can be a weekend thing for me, but I'm not going to be doing it every day."

"You're going to miss us so much, Summer. And what are you going to do when you realise that you can't live without our bus and all the chaos we bring to the people? How are you going to live in a house rather than random hotel rooms and with people who might like you rather than those money grubbing bastards that are ready to kill us every time we step into their towns?" He tugged at a strand of her hair as he asked, getting his hand swatted away by Summer.

She had contemplated more than once getting her hair cut just so he wouldn't be able to do that to her anymore, but then she would remember that she loved her hair, and she could always swat him away from her much more quickly than she could grow back her long mane. Summer took a deep breath to keep from exploding.

"I'll remember what it was like to have to wear flip flops every time I wanted to take a shower, and how many times I had to go for more than two days without washing my hair. I'll remember all the bad stuff, and it will make me happy that I can visit without actually having to live this life anymore."

"You'll never be happy going back to where you came from."

"I will, Matthew." Summer shrugged as she gathered her papers, all too aware that she wasn't going to get anything more done with Matthew hanging around her. "I'm not happy here anymore. I miss my dad, and my home, and Seth. I miss Seth so much. I miss Ryan and Taylor. God, I even miss Julie. Who misses Julie?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Summer rose from her chair and tried to balance all her things in her small arms. "I know. But you should just try to understand that this is really what I have to do. It's time that I went back to the life I left behind."

"You mean teen dramas and parties where people drink their troubles away?"

Summer's eyes hardened as she stared down at him. They'd been having this conversation much too often recently, and she didn't see why it was that she had to defend moving forward with her life once again. "Matthew…"

"I know, I know, I just don't get it, and I should stop trying to convince you that anything but what you've been taught is the right way to live your life even if it might mean the end of all that is organized within GEORGE forever."

Summer rolled her eyes. "I promise that I will have the new recruits so well briefed by the time I leave, you'll wonder how it was that you thought I was doing such a good job when I was here."

"I seriously doubt that, Summer."

"I just promised."

"I think we should really discuss this over—"

Summer thanked God her phone chose that moment to ring. She somehow picked it out of the papers, pencils and other miscellaneous objects in her arms, to flip it open. Her brow scrunched at the name on the caller ID, but she was quick to change her expression to a smile as she returned her attention to Matthew.

"I really have to take this. Sorry." Summer quickly moved away, bringing the phone to her ear. "Taylor, you are my new favourite person."

"Hello to you too, Summer."

"You just got me out of a conversation that… let's just say I was ready for it to end, and it's preferable that your call, rather than my fist be the catalyst to end it."

"Catalyst?"

"My boyfriend makes a living playing with words. If I'm going to live with him, I have to have some kind of vocabulary to keep up. I'm not going to let Seth sound smarter than me. Well, smarter in whatever people can make out of his mumbling."

"Wow." Taylor's voice wavered, distractedly. "So, you guys are really going to be moving in together soon, huh? That's big. Knowing you two, you must be freaking."

"Actually, we're both taking it really well, and there's really no point trying to put doubts in my mind."

"Doubts?" Taylor's voice rose at the word. "I would never."

Summer laughed on her end of the line as she pushed open the door to the room that would be hers for the night. Or the half a room, she decided as she sent a nod in the direction of the girl with whom she'd be sharing her space for the next few days.

"I was just calling to catch up and see how you were doing, my dear Summer."

"I'm great, Taylor."

"Great. That's good. So, where are you?"

"Physically?" Summer asked as she plopped down on the bed. She looked around to find something that would tell her where she was. Finally, she turned on the television and found the local weather network where she read the screen. "Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh. And for a few days as well. I get to go three whole days without getting on that bus again."

"Pittsburgh. Home of the… something exciting I'm sure."

"Home of Anna Stern," Summer confirmed with a determined nod.

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter. So, where are you, Taylor? Paris? Venice? London?"

"I'm actually late. Um… well it's been nice talking to you, Summer. But I really have to go now. We should do this again."

"But Tay—"

She hung up before Summer could finish her sentence.

"So much for catching up," Summer mumbled to herself as she switched to a channel with a local news anchor who was in desperate need of a new tie. "That girl just gets weirder."

She was about to raise the volume as a teaser for a news item regarding tomorrow's protest came on when her phone rang again. Summer reached for it, once again taking a quick peek at the caller ID before answer. She sighed and tightened her face in confusion.

"Hello?"

* * *

"Summer is only getting here on the 21st," Kirsten said as she walked into the kitchen and hung up the telephone.

"What?" Sandy asked, barely taking his eyes off the Candyland board in front of him.

"I called Summer to ask her when she would get here for the party, and she said she would only get here on the 21st."

"The party's on the 23rd. She'll be here in plenty of time. I know you ladies like to take your time getting ready, but I think she can manage to do it in two days."

"But I wanted to throw Summer a party," Kirsten told him as she leaned her elbows on top of the kitchen counter. She blew at her hair and brought up an impatient hand to tuck away her long bangs when they wouldn't stay out of her eyes.

"What?" Sandy asked.

"I want to throw Summer a party," Sophie piped up from her seat across from her father.

"You do?" Sandy asked. "But we're already throwing a party for Julie, and then a party for Ryan, and I'm sure by the time we get done with those two we'll have found someone else who needs a party. Don't you worry, your mother's good at that."

"Sandy…" Kirsten chided as she moved to sit beside them.

"But why do we have to throw Aunt Julie a party? I want to throw Summer a party. And Ryan." She moved her marker on the board and then passed the dice along to her father. "Can we throw Seth a party too?"

"What have you done to my daughter?" Sandy asked Kirsten as he let the play pieces fall from his hand.

"Summer is coming home for good, Sandy. She's starting a whole new part of her life. We should celebrate that. I mean, we didn't do anything for her graduation, and that's a big moment."

"Summer didn't even go to her graduation, and Seth and Neil flew out to be with her and celebrate when she finished her courses. Besides, she's not moving here. We can't throw her a homecoming party somewhere that isn't her home."

"But—"

"We're throwing Julie a party to celebrate her graduation," Sandy told her, as he reached over to place his hand over hers. "Then, we're throwing Ryan a party to celebrate his graduation. Let Summer move in with Seth. Knowing them, she'll have a lot of stuff she'll want him to get rid of, and he's going to cave faster than she can finish asking him. Then, we'll let her write out a nice, precise list of what they—and by they I mean she—want to decorate their home, and then we'll have a homecoming party at their place with tons of stuff that I won't have to buy with money from my wallet. How does that sound?"

Kirsten sighed. "Can we at least have a nice family dinner when she gets here? And cake."

"And a tea party?" Sophie added.

"Yes, yes, and yes, to all those requests. A dinner, a cake, and tea. But I draw the line at another party even if I do love Summer like a daughter. Now," Sandy said as he turned his attention back to his game, "am I losing here?"

Sophie let out a giggle as Kirsten patted her husband's back, and left the room, the telephone still in her hand.

"Your mother's losing it, baby," Sandy told his daughter as he rolled the dice again.

"No, you're losing."

Sandy laughed despite himself. "Well, yes, but I meant—"

He furrowed his eyebrows when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID before picking it up, making an even graver face at the number he found there.

"Hello?" He smiled over at Sophie as he listened. "Wait, say that again? No, don't hang—"

He sighed as the line went dead.

"Listen, Sophie. Daddy's got some work he has to do. Is it okay if we finish this later?"

"Can you lose later?"

"I'm sure I can lose later. Thank you, sweetie." He dropped a kiss on top of her head before he hurried out of the room.

Sophie watched him go. She shrugged at his retreating figure, and rolled the dice again.

* * *

"Are you still on that thing?" Julie asked as she struggled across the kitchen, grocery bags in one arm, and the hand of the other holding on to Kevin's. She looked over quickly at her son and bit back a groan when the oranges in the bag he was holding fell to the ground.

Kaitlin barely looked up from her laptop to see her mother. She bit her lip as she watched the screen. "I'm reading Taylor's blog. She's just… Drama does not begin to describe this girl."

"I've read Taylor's blog. I'm not sure I like you reading it. To say that's she's descriptive when it comes to her personal life is an understatement."

"You read Taylor's old blog," Kaitlin sighed as she moved to grab the bag from Kevin. "She hasn't had any exploits to describe since she and Ryan broke up. There's really nothing even slightly R rated to read on there."

"I still don't understand why those two broke up."

"Who knows?" Kaitlin shrugged as she grabbed an apple and took a large bite. "They did the long distance thing for longer than anyone could expect before they finally called it off. It doesn't make any sense if you ask me. They were so in love. I thought they were really in it for the long haul."

"And Lord knows the spiral of depression that girl fell into when they did break up."

"Yeah, but, she was depressed way before they broke up. It's like she knew it was coming or something. But, I don't see why. I mean, neither of them have been the same since the break up."

Julie tugged at her hair as she moved around the kitchen to put away their food. "It is a mystery. I mean, even Frank admitted that Ryan has not been the same since the break up. He hasn't even been brooding apparently. He's just depressed."

"But it's almost been a year."

"I don't know." Julie shrugged. "Maybe he has no one to punch in this situation and doesn't know how to deal with his feelings."

"You know what," Kaitlin said as she moved back to her laptop on the kitchen counter. "I've got nothing to do until finals. I've got a study week to prepare for exams I'm already ready for, and it's been a while since I've stirred up any trouble. I'm going to fix these two."

"Kaitlin… you shouldn't meddle."

"I'm helping."

Julie rolled her eyes as she closed the refrigerator. "Why don't you help around the house instead?"

"Because that's boring. Besides, as much as I love all of you, Newport is boring with no one but Seth around. There are only so many times I can watch animé with him."

"He still watches animé?"

"Apparently," Kaitlin shrugged. "Nope. I have a week off, and this is what I'm doing with it. I'll have all summer afterward to be bored in this town."

"And your enthusiasm is nothing but welcome," a new voice offered, entering the kitchen.

"Hey, Frank," Kaitlin answered as she watched him walk into the kitchen and peck her mother on the cheek. "Nice shirt. It's the same as all your others, right?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Always a pleasure, Kaitlin. So what's your latest project? I only heard the tail end."

"Getting Ryan and Taylor back together."

"I told her it was a bad idea," Julie offered as she moved around him. "I'm going to get the rest of the groceries. Come help, Kevin."

Frank turned his head to watch them leave the room, and quickly turned back to face Kaitlin. "So, you're in the mood to play Cupid are you?"

"You want to help your son get back together with Taylor, there Frank?"

He smiled as he leaned his elbow on the counter and move toward her. "That, and more."

Kaitlin raised her eyebrows in intrigue as she too let a smile spread across her face. "Well, do tell."


	2. Chapter 2: Stirring up the past

Thanks for the interest and the feedback from all. Sorry it took so long to update. It shouldn't always take this long.

On to Chapter 2...

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Chapter 2:

**Stirring up the past**

"How do you feel about France?"

Ryan looked over at his alarm clock, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was really seeing that it was only three in the morning. He sighed loudly into the phone almost knocking the receiver off his night table as he tried to get comfortable. "What?"

"France? What do you think about it?"

"I hate France."

"All right." Seth nodded a few times on his end of the conversation from the other side of the country. He was almost as tired as his brother despite the fact that he was six hours ahead. "How would you feel about France if it weren't for the fact that that's where your ex-girlfriend met her first husband and where she ran off to when she finally left you once you'd decided you were going to Berkeley and then you had that weird fight thing that I still don't understand?"

Another sigh from Ryan. "I don't know. I've never been, Seth."

"Right, well, neither have I, but it sounds romantic, doesn't it?"

"What?"

"Proposing to Summer in Paris. Sounds romantic, right?"

"It sounds great, buddy."

Seth shook his head as he leafed through a few comic books on the shelf before him. His room hadn't been ready when he'd tried to check in to the hotel he'd called fifteen minutes before boarding his plane, and so he'd been wandering the streets with no one to annoy. Experience had told him that if he wanted to find a quiet corner from where he could call Ryan for a little chat, a comic book store was a good place to start. He was right.

"Then again," Seth continued, "it won't be as much of a surprise. If I tell her we're flying all the way to Paris, and then we actually go, she'll have to think something is up, won't she?"

"Stop procrastinating and just ask her already."

"Figuring out where and how to propose isn't procrastinating." Seth shook his head. "Procrastinating is me here in New York asking her father's permission before I ask Summer if she wants to marry me. That's procrastinating."

"You're in New York?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you have a job, or something?" Ryan asked as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes to try and wake himself up a little more.

"I do graphic design work and think up slogans for an advertising company and write comic books on the side. If I can find a fax machine, I'm at work."

"So you're asking Dr. Roberts if you can marry Summer, and then she's next on the list?"

"Sure." Ryan could picture Seth's awkward nod turn into a shake of the head simply through his voice. "Most likely."

"You know Summer is going to kick your ass if you tell everyone before you tell her. She may kick your ass for having gone to her father before going to her in the first place."

"I don't think so, man. Consulting the best friend is always part of the proposal. If Marissa was still around, I'd ask her. If Taylor didn't have such a big mouth, I'd ask her. But neither can help me, and so who's Summer's next best friend? Dr. R. Telling one person before her is completely excusable."

"You told me."

Seth shrugged on the other end of the line. "Telling my brother so I can ask for his advice is also acceptable."

"And Sandy."

"I didn't tell Sandy."

"What?"

"I didn't tell my dad." Seth voice faltered over the line. "I didn't tell him. Why would you think I would have told him?"

"I don't know. It's a big step. I would have thought you'd have talked to your dad about it before going ahead with it."

"You think I should have talked to him about it?"

"Seth," Ryan warned.

"Maybe I do New York, then Berkeley to check with the Sandman, and then Summer. Maybe. Anyone else you think I should tell?" Seth turned his back to the comics and let his body slide down to the floor.

"Just ask Summer. You know, the more people you tell, the more people will know if she refuses."

"You think she'll say no?"

Ryan groaned and threw his head back on his pillow. "No."

"She'll say no?"

"No, I don't think she'll say no. Listen. Just ask Summer. Just find out wherever she is, go surprise her and ask her to marry you."

"What? Ryan, that's so lame."

"Excuse me?"

"It's just so… conventional. Where's the oomph? Where's the bang? Where's the splat? Where—"

"Have you been reading Batman again?"

"It was the only thing I could find." Seth glanced quickly at his watch. "Now I have to go meet Dr. Roberts, but I want you to put a little effort into this, Ryan. I'm only getting married once, for God's sake."

"Lord knows Summer wouldn't let you marry anyone else."

"And that's why I love her. I'm going to call you later. Don't turn your phone off."

Already, Ryan had been reaching for his cell phone to turn it off. "I've got classes until five, but I'll be nothing but ears after that, buddy."

"I might have to call you before that. I'll let you know how it goes."

"There was never a doubt in my mind that you would."

"Good." Seth nodded to himself quickly as he moved out of the comic book store. "Hey, you've got a break next week, right?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Even better, I'll be able to call you whenever. I won't have to worry about classes…"

"Seth, I'm going to be studying. It's a study break."

"What?"

"These are my last exams ever, Seth. I need to get this right because I'm not coming back for one stupid class should I fail anything."

"Ryan, you haven't gotten a bad grade since you went off to school, much less failed anything. I bet you know the material like the back of your hand."

"I have to study," Ryan simply answered.

"No, you are just avoiding people once again like you have been ever since you and Taylor broke up. Man, that girl changed you. She didn't hypnotize you or anything like that, did she?"

"Taylor didn't do anything wrong," Ryan answered in his stony voice.

"Listen, I know we've never talked about it, because that's just not the Atwood way, but don't you think it's time you told me why you and Taylor suddenly broke it off."

"We couldn't do long distance."

"That's bullshit and you know it. What happened, Ryan?"

Ryan took a deep breath as he looked around his dorm room. If only his roommate was there, he could yell at him and make him hang up on Seth. The guy was AWOL as usual, however.

"Aren't you going to be late for your lunch with Summer's dad?"

Seth sighed and growled in the same breath. "One of these days I'm going to be selfless enough that you won't be able to get out of these conversations by changing the subject to me."

"I'm sure you will, pal," Ryan answered with a chuckle.

"All right, I'm off. But listen, I'm serious about you keeping your phone on. Don't turn that thing off."

"You got it, buddy."

"And I will be listening the minute you're ready to talk about Taylor."

"There's noth—" Ryan shook his head at his lie. "I'll keep that in mind."

He yawned as he heard Seth hang up, then reached over and flipped off his cell phone. He let himself sink back into his pillow and quickly fell asleep once more, hoping that his conversation with Seth wouldn't bring back the dreams of Taylor it had taken him so long to chase away.

* * *

"Where are you?" Summer asked, taking the phone away from her mouth and closing it.

"You know, the only way to know the answer to your question is to keep listening to what the person on the other line is going to say. I know, it's a fairly complicated process, but if you stick with it, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it."

Summer rolled her eyes and squeezed her phone a little tighter, reminding herself that none of this was Matthew's fault and that there was absolutely no reason for her to take her anger out on him. Finally, she shrugged. "He wasn't answering."

"Well, that's an odd message to leave. You didn't even say your name."

"I wasn't leaving a message. I was just wondering out loud. Is there a reason you're hovering over me?"

He smiled down at her, pulling himself up a little straighter to emphasize her "over." He was at least a whole foot taller than her. Summer rolled her eyes again as she moved her gaze back to the papers in her lap. She'd been staring at them most of the morning, and hadn't been able to make sense out of a single sheet.

"Want me to distract you? I can take you out to Chez Marcel for supper."

"That's way too expensive for what you make, Matthew."

"I have some money stored away," he told her with a shrug.

Summer shook her head, wishing he wasn't so quick to contradict every one of her refusals. "Sorry, but I'll have to pass."

"It's probably for the best. You have a visitor," Matthew told her.

"I do?" Summer's back straightened and her fists tightened against the sheets of paper she was holding. "Seth?"

"I've never met Seth, but I seriously doubt this is him." Matthew smiled again, nodding toward the door of the long hotel boardroom where the group had set itself up for the day. Summer followed his gaze and couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips when she found the person standing at the door, waiting for her.

"Taylor! What are you doing here? I thought you were still in France."

"Chow, bella," Taylor offered with a dramatic wave. "I was, but it was time to come home. My cousin is having a baby, and even though I haven't seen her in over a year, I promised I would come to the shower."

"Aw," Summer answered, her arms wrapped around the girl. She backed up quickly as Taylor's layered black blouse crinkled under her touch. "Wait? Chow, bella? I'm not so good with the languages, but even I know that isn't French."

"It's Italian."

"I thought you were in France."

"Well, I was, but I found this nice Italian boy who wanted to teach me his native tongue, and who was I to protest? Who was I to protest any of the ways he wanted to use his native—"

"All right, got it. Not very subtle."

"Never was a strong suite."

Summer smiled, grabbing Taylor's hand and pulling down to the couch. "So, is your cousin here in Kansas?"

"No. I was just stopping by to see how you were doing."

Summer's eyes narrowed as she watched her friend. She shook her head. "Taylor, you know that there's nothing I love more than one of your visits, but seriously, what are you doing here?"

"Summer, I am shocked—"

"Taylor."

"All right." Taylor sighed as she reached out to grab Summer's phone and have something to distract her fingers as she talked. "I just wanted to see someone. Someone I knew. Someone American... I just wanted a friend."

Summer tilted her head and offered a small smile. "Are you okay, Taylor?"

"Yeah." Taylor shrugged. "Sure. I was just missing people, and I think we all know that my mother isn't the one who's going to be doing anything to soothe that loneliness for me, if you know what I mean."

"I do."

"And I wanted to see how you were doing. So," Taylor took a look around the room where they found themselves, her eyes widening slightly, "how are you doing, Summer?"

"I'm good." Summer laughed. "I'm great really. I'm on the tail end of my stay with GEORGE. I'm ready to settle down and find a real job. I can't wait to see Seth more than just a few days in a row and to lose this nightly phone conversation thing, which—while fantastic—is definitely not the best way to assuage my Cohen needs."

"Really? I would have thought Seth would be good at phone sex."

"Ew. Besides, he rambles. Can you imagine how long it would take him to just undo the first button on my shirt or something?"

"It's Seth; I would have actually thought that if there was a problem, it would be getting him to slow down and make things last."

Summer's eyes narrowed and it took her a moment to remind herself that she no longer hated Taylor and that the woman wasn't after her man. "That's enough about that."

"So, how's everyone else?"

"Good." Summer shrugged. "Everyone's doing good."

"Everyone?"

"Well, Kirsten and Sandy are loving their new jobs. Sophie's just a tiny happy person. My father and the step-monster are actually getting along, which is a little hard for me, but we're working on it. And hey, did you hear that Julie's graduating from university? She took a marketing class. She was top of her class most of the time."

"Great. That's great. So everyone is great. Everyone." Taylor nodded quickly a few times.

"Then there's Ryan."

"Ryan? Oh, I forgot. Ryan, of course. How is Ryan?"

"Taylor."

"You brought him up."

Summer's face softened as she watched Taylor try to remain impassive. Taylor was a lot of things: smart, scheming, fluent in more languages than Summer probably knew existed… Being good with men—or simply being good with the subject of men—however, was definitely not one of those things.

"I don't understand how you guys didn't keep in touch."

Taylor shrugged. "It was just too hard, I guess. He was at Berkeley and everything was new. I was in Europe and everything was French. It would have been too easy for him to get hurt after the whole Ma…" Taylor stopped herself and raised her eyes to meet Summer's.

Summer nodded. "Marissa. You can say her name."

"After everything he and Marissa had been through. And Lord knows we had our own drama. I didn't want to have to put him through anything more difficult than your typical first-year university romance. Besides, the college years are a time to experiment and have fun. It isn't time to be calling the same person every night and worrying about who they're meeting on the other side of the ocean. We were fighting before we were even apart. It was just easier to let go of each other."

"Was it?"

"Well, one can never really tell what might have been." Taylor's voice rose and she straightened her back as she always did when she was trying to convince someone of something she didn't even remotely believe herself. "But I have to believe I made the right decision, because that's the decision I made."

"That's… very reasonable of you, Taylor."

"Thanks." She sighed as she picked at her nails. "So how is he?"

"Good from what I see. A few months away from graduating. Top of his class. Loving this internship he got to do and already got a job lined up for once he graduates. Single." Summer reached for her phone at the word to help her pretend she didn't see the gleam that appeared in Taylor's eyes. "And I would be able to give you a much better update if Seth would just call me already, but he seems to be completely unreachable today."

"Slipping away from you? Straying a bit?"

Summer held her hand up at Taylor's words. "Don't even. Seth and I are way past the phase where you or anyone else can put doubts in our minds about our relationship. We're good despite the fact that we're never together. We got past all the little things that used to worry us, and now we're doing what's best, and that's being Seth and Summer together."

"Well Summer Roberts," Taylor praised in her high voice, "I am both pleased and impressed with this turn of events. If I had to guess someone would have made it past the whole high school phase I would have guessed it would be you and Seth, but that you have so much trust in your relationship and are in such a mature place, well that's fantastic for you guys."

"Yeah. Plus Princess Sparkles is with him to make sure he stays in line."

Taylor nodded slowly. "All right, I might have to take back that mature part."

Summer laughed. "So, are you staying for a while? I don't think there's a spare bed in any room, but I've got a double bed if you promise not to kick in your sleep."

"Tempting, but no. I really have to be on my way. I don't even want to think about what my mother's going to say if I'm late for this shower or if I'm not around to help plan."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

"Well, are you going back to France right after the shower?"

"I don't know." Taylor shrugged. "I haven't really decided yet. I might be heading back to France like I might be heading back to Newport. I've decided to let the wind set my sails where it may."

"Don't do that. I went sailing with Cohen once. It's just… don't do that."

"I was speaking metaphorically."

"I know. I just… don't do it."

"Summer." Both girls looked up at the sound of the new voice as a boy squatted down between the girls' chairs to be closer to Summer's height. "Matthew says they can't find the contact name of the person responsible for this rally, and he's freaking out."

"It's on the agenda."

"We can't find the agenda."

"It's on the computer."

The man sighed. "We can't seem to start the computer."

"Have you—"

"I'm not going to keep you," Taylor said already rising from her seat. "I was really just passing through on my way to this shower. It was really nice to see you again, though Summer, and not have you just be a voice on the phone."

"You too, Taylor." Summer reached out for a hug as she pulled herself up as well. "Let me know if you're sticking around for a while. We'll get together and talk about all your adventures."

"Really?"

"All your PG adventures."

"Deal," Taylor offered with a laugh. With a wave, she was walking out of the room.

"All right," Summer smiled at the guy in front of her. "Let's go find that name."

* * *

"Are you all right?"

Seth looked up from the napkin he'd been playing with since he'd sat down for the meal. He nodded slowly as he tried to think of something to say. More importantly, he tried to think of some way of talking without letting the nervousness that was swirling around his stomach explode all over Dr. Roberts.

"Just hungry," he finally mumbled.

Neil laughed. "I've never known hunger to make you quiet, Seth."

"Jet lagged," Seth offered with a few slow nods.

"When did you get in?"

"This morning."

"Oh," Neil nodded to the waiter who brought then their drinks and quickly scurried away before anything could be asked of him. "When are you heading back?"

"Tonight."

"You're only in New York for a few hours?"

"Yeah."

Neil paused as he brought his glass of wine to his mouth. "On business?"

"No."

"Pleasure?"

Seth's eyes widened at the question. "Definitely not."

They were silent. Seth took the time to look around.

It was like he had never left Newport. Sunny day; outside table at an overpriced restaurant where the portions would barely hold him over until he could find some food vendor on the street; plenty of rich people ready to waste their money… You could take Neil Roberts out of Newport, but apparently Newport was as inherent in him as in most of the other Newpsies.

Neil sighed as he let his glass settle on the table once more. "Why don't you just tell me why it is you're here, Seth?"

"Well, sir, the thing is, if you remember correctly, you're daughter and I have been seeing each other for a while now. We've seen each other through a lot of things, like Trey and Marissa and Brown and GEORGE and prom and really a lot of things that you probably should never find out about."

"I'm sure Summer would appreciate that," Neil agreed with a small smirk.

"But trust me when I say that your daughter and I have been through a lot together, and through that a lot, we've come out stronger than we ever have been, and I like to think that we've been moving forward and—"

Neil raised his hand with a laugh. "Seth, I'm going to have to be back at the hospital in less than an hour, so if you could just ask me for my daughter's hand in marriage so I can answer you, that would be very helpful in this conversation."

"I…" Seth froze. "What?"

"Summer. You want to ask my permission to marry Summer, correct?"

"Yeah, but how did you…"

"Oh, I figured it would just be a matter of time before you showed up here again and asked me about it. And if you have no other reason to be in town, I'm not going to flatter myself into thinking that you were coming around just to see me."

"Well, it's not—"

"I'm kidding, Seth. You have work and responsibilities now. You aren't expected to come visit your future father-in-law just for the heck of it at any moment."

"Future…" Seth wheezed, forgetting how to breathe for a moment.

Neil laughed as he shook his head. "Let's face it. I don't have that much of a say in this. If you want to marry Summer, she's going to be the one deciding whether or not you get that privilege. What I have to say in the matter is only secondary."

"I wouldn't…"

"But you would. You love Summer enough that you would marry her even if I said no. And I have to respect that, Seth. Besides," he picked up his glass of wine and brought it up to his lips, "you did much better this time than you did the last time you were asking me for my daughter's hand."

"I did? Are you kidding me? I'm a nervous wreck. Last time I was completely fine and I wasn't sweating in the least bit."

"Exactly. I know you well enough to know that if you're rambling, it means something to you. Last time, you wanted me to say no."

Seth shook his head. "I—"

"And my daughter wanted me to say no, because for whatever reason you two decided to get engaged, it wasn't the right one and you both knew it." Neil waited for a moment to see if Seth would have anything to say, but when his lunch partner remained quiet, he continued. "I suppose I may never find out what it was exactly that put the idea of marriage into your heads so young, but I'm happy you didn't go through with it then. I'm happy you let my daughter go off and you helped her find out who she really is and that you made her the woman I am so proud of today. So, to summarize, I would be very happy if you were to ask Summer to marry you, Seth."

Seth nodded slowly. "I'm really impressed that I stayed quiet through that entire thing."

"So am I. Now, now that that's out of the way, do you think we can have a normal conversation during this lunch?"

Seth let out a small chuckle as he ducked his head. "Yeah. I think we can do that."

* * *

"Kirsten, I swear that I did not have anything to do with it."

"Sandy, are you telling me that my cookbook just magically disappeared from the kitchen?" Kirsten asked as her hand made its way down to her hip. "Did it just get up and walk out of the house so that I wouldn't be able to use it?"

Sandy hurried around Kirsten and into the living room so she wouldn't be able to see the smile on his face. "Of course not. But you forget, my dear, that we have a young child in the house again. Who knows what she can get into? It's a bright, shiny, cookbook. Maybe she was attracted to the colours."

"Don't even think of blaming this on my child, Sandy. She is not nearly tall enough to reach the counter, and she knows better than to play with—"

Sandy sighed happily when the doorbell interrupted his wife's argument. He may have been a public defender for years, but he still couldn't win half the fights he somehow managed to fall into with his wife. Besides, now that he wasn't practicing law anymore, he was getting rusty and she was gaining ground on him.

"You should thank your lucky stars for that doorbell," Kirsten yelled over her shoulder.

"What?" Sandy asked, spreading his arms out though she couldn't see him. "I'm innocent. If I took that cookbook from you, that's Satan at the door."

Kirsten smirked at her husband and turned to see who was actually paying them a visit.

"Julie!" Kirsten turned once again to face Sandy.

Sandy's face dropped at the sight. "I'll go get your cookbook from my office."

"Am I interrupting?" Julie smiled, sweeping into the room before Kirsten had a chance to answer. "Of course I'm not. It's Saturday. Sandy's not teaching and you're obviously at home from this wonderful job you keep telling me about. I'm just in time."

"Of course you're not interrupting, Julie," Kirsten said cautiously as she followed her friend around the room. "What are you doing here, though?"

"Visiting."

"You just decided to drop by?"

"Well, Kaitlin had an emergency trip she had to make with some super secret mission apparently, and Kevin is off with Frank on an equally mysterious father-son trip. So, I figured I'd come see you since it's the first time I have a week to myself in so long."

"Julie…" Kirsten said with raised eyebrow.

"This is really lovely. Have you changed the colour of the walls since the last time I was here?" Julie walked from one room to the other, picking things up for closer inspection and setting them back down, careless of Kirsten always two steps behind her.

"Julie."

"Yes, Kirsten?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Visi—"

"Julie?" Kirsten's voice rose slightly and Julie froze at the sound. Kirsten never got mad.

"It's study week and I know all my material."

Kirsten said nothing, opting to simply glare at Julie from across the kitchen island where they finally found themselves.

"Frank's going to dump me," Julie finally told her.

"You guys don't have any dirty movies that may be revealed, do you?" Sandy asked as he turned the corner with Kirsten's cookbook, letting it drop on the counter.

"That's funny, Sandy. But I'm not kidding. I'm a few weeks from having my life truly in order, and now this bomb's about to drop on me and you're making jokes," Julie whined.

"You know that no matter how many bom—" Sandy stopped as he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He brought the gadget closer to his face, and his eyes widened at the number he found on the caller ID. "Excuse me ladies. I have to take this. Hello?" Sandy covered the mouthpiece and looked over at his wife. "I'll probably have to head out to the office, honey. I don't know how late I'll be."

Kirsten's eyes narrowed as she watched her husband leave the room. She licked her lips and turned to face Julie whose eyes sparkled with interest. Julie smirked.

"Should we start with your problems or mine?"

* * *

"Business or pleasure?" the man next to her asked, crossing his legs so he would have an excuse to inch closer to her.

"Pleasure," Kaitlin answered. "Just not mine."

"Do you specialise in other people's pleasure?"

"Okay, creep, that's gross."

"I'm sorry," he smiled a leer that didn't make Kaitlin feel any better. "That came out wrong. How long will you be on vacation?"

"As long as it takes," she sighed.

"You sound very selfless."

"And you sound like—"

"Excuse me."

They both looked up at the sound of the new voice, and Kaitlin took the opportunity to move away from the man as far as her small seat in the airport would allow.

"Can we help you?" the man asked.

"Yeah, you're sitting next to my fiancé. So move."

Kaitlin felt her body tense as she waited for a reaction. Mumbling something of an excuse the creepy guy left as the new man sat next to her.

"Thanks," Kaitlin said. "Unless you're also a weird creepy guy, in which case please get away."

"Nah. I'm all right. I have five sisters. I'm used to running interference."

"Well I had it under control, but thanks anyway."

"No problem," he shrugged. "I'm Colin."

Kaitlin smiled as she reached out for his hand. She took the time to look him over. He was hot; she wasn't going to lie about that. Short dark hair, deep brown eyes, built like a water polo player, and able to string a few sentences together. It was better than a lot she had encountered recently.

"Where are you headed?" she asked.

"Berkeley. You?"

"The same. You go to school there?"

"No, one of my sisters does, and she needs some help packing up and leaving since it's her last year. Because I wasn't doing anything but deciding what I'm going to be doing next year, my parents volunteered me to help."

Kaitlin laughed. "How nice of them."

"Yeah, I don't think they realise how boring it's going to be while Charlie is out studying all the time, and I'm left to find something to do in a town where everyone is distracted by their finals."

"Well, I'll be in Berkeley if that's any help."

"And you'll find the time to hang out with me?"

Kaitlin let her head tilt in a move that she'd recently noticed she'd picked up from her mother. She straightened her head and smiled. "Actually, if you wanted, you could really help me out while we were in Berkeley."

"It doesn't require heavy lifting, does it? Because I've got a lot of that schedule already."

"No heavy lifting," Kaitlin smiled. "But someone might try to punch you."

"I can duck. Besides, I was a peer counsellor for a year. I was all about the anger management."

"Very helpful."

"What exactly is it I'll be doing though?" Colin asked, leaning back as though that would prepare him for whatever Kaitlin had to say.

"Actually, you've already kind of got the idea."


	3. Chapter 3: Suspicion aroused

Thanks again for the interest and the feedback from all.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Suspicion aroused**

The first thing Seth did once his lunch with Dr. Roberts was finally over was to take in a slow, deep breath. He fought the feeling that his legs were going to turn into jelly, and let the grin shine on his face instead.

He'd gotten Dr. Roberts' blessing.

Actually, he hadn't just gotten the man's blessing, but he'd gotten his assurance that Summer would be insane not to say yes. It was the best endorsement Seth could ask for, and showed the great progress he had made since his first meeting with the man.

Now, he could ask Summer… Wait, no his father first, then Summer. Or maybe he should also—

"Seth? Seth, my otter-souled friend? Is that you?"

The voice had sounded familiar, but it was the word "otter" that had truly caught Seth's attention. His eyes widened as he turned toward the sound. There was no way it could possibly…

But there he was. Before Seth could even find his voice to answer, he was wrapped in Che's arms as the burly man gripped him in a vice hold and shook him from one side to the other.

"Seth. What are you doing here, my brother?"

"Having lunch."

"That's beautiful," Che told him, with a slowly, pensive shake of the head. He pulled away from Seth, but kept his hands on the man's shoulders. "That's just wonderful."

"What are you doing here, Che?" Seth asked as he looked Che over quickly. The tattered chinos, the faded shirt, the messy hair… It wasn't exactly up to the restaurant's dress code.

"I was also partaking in the food of this establishment."

"Really? You weren't freeing the lobsters, or setting loose the poultry or anything like that?"

Che wrapped his arm around Seth's shoulder and led him away from the restaurant. "I have reached a truce with my parents which obligates me to not do that when we're dining out together. It's a big demand on their part, but they don't eat meat in return, so we call it even."

"Great." Seth nodded.

Che grinned, nodding his head as well. He moved them along the sidewalk and through the crowd of people.

"Now, Seth, I was about to head out on a mission. A weekend with my parents always warrants a cleansing mission of some sort." Che pointed violently in Seth's direction, keeping the man close with the help of the arm he still had wrapped around Seth's shoulder. "Are you willing to join me?"

"A mission, huh?"

"Yes."

Seth looked around them, checked his watch, and contemplated his options. He could go with Che, risk imprisonment, bodily harm, a number of diseases and bites from countless animals; or he could ask Summer to marry him and risk the chance that she say no and break his heart into a million little pieces.

Seth shrugged and stopped offering the tiny bit of resistance he'd been giving Che's tugs at his shoulder. "Sure. I'm not in a hurry."

Summer was going to kill him.

* * *

Ryan groaned as he rolled over on the bed. He should have been expecting it. He should be expecting it every night for a number of upcoming weeks. If Seth was on the cusp of something as major as asking Summer to marry him, Ryan should be prepared to be woken every morning at an ungodly hour to listen to the boy complain and whine about everything that could go wrong but most probably wouldn't.

Without even bothering to open his eyes, Ryan reached out his arm and groped blindly until he made contact with the ringing object. He managed to turn it on without moving his head.

"Stop worrying. Summer loves you. Everything's fine."

"What?"

He froze.

"Summer?"

"Ryan?"

"What time is it?" Ryan asked, suddenly awake and sitting up in bed.

"I don't know. I don't even know what state I'm in, so time difference is beyond me. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but don't—"

"Well, you're up now," Summer dismissed. "What did Seth do?"

"About what?"

"Don't play coy with me, Atwood. I haven't been able to reach him all day, and when I finally call his brother to see what's up, you answer with something about how everything will work out because I love him and all that crap. What did he do?"

Ryan scooted up against the pillow, rubbing his eyes as he tried to wake himself. Talking with Seth early in the morning wasn't a problem, because it only required listening on his part. He barely ever had a chance to sneak a word in the conversation. Talking with Summer, however… that actually necessitated participation on his part.

"He didn't do anything."

"Ryan…"

"He's just being Seth. He's excited that you guys are going to be in the same town for more than two seconds soon, and he's just freaking out about how he can make that perfect."

There was a pause on the line, and Ryan winced as he hoped Summer was buying his story.

"You're lying," she finally said.

"Summer…"

"And with Taylor around to put doubts in my head—"

Ryan's back straightened quickly and his half opened eyes suddenly widened, fully awake. "Wait, what?"

He could hear her sputtering over the line as she tried to recover. "In my head. I said doubts in my head."

"You said Taylor and around. Is Taylor around?"

"When you say around…"

"In the country, Summer. Answer the question."

Summer sighed loudly over the line. "Yeah, all right. Taylor's back. She's going to her cousin's baby shower, and she's trying to decide whether she's going to stay around afterward, or go back to Europe."

"Hmm."

"That's all you've got to say about it?"

"Yeah."

Summer rolled her eyes and stopped herself from letting out another angry sigh. "Well at least you're both on the same page."

Ryan cleared his throat as he shifted under the covers. "She didn't have anything to say about me?"

"Nope."

"Well…" He nodded a few times though Summer couldn't see him. "Okay."

"Yeah, that's that unless you're planning on actually taking a break during your study week and maybe heading out to Kansas to see her."

"I'm studying."

"Right. Studying…" Summer shook her head. She stopped, however, when she noticed the pile of papers in front of her and realised she couldn't quite remember the last time she had taken a break either. "Well, when you eventually talk to Seth, please tell him to call me no matter what he did. I'll be mad at him later. Right now I just need to hear his voice to get me through the next few days."

"Crazy?"

"I didn't realise how hard trying to teach someone to be me could be."

Ryan squinted at her voice. She did sound tired. Tired and something else… "You sure that's it?"

"Well, I mean, it's not like anyone's making it easy on me to lea— You know what, just have Seth call me, please. I should let you get back to sleep." She paused, trying to think of some way to apologize since none of this was really Ryan's fault and he did have a right to his sleep. "I hope I didn't wake your roommate."

"That guy? He started study break a month ago and probably won't be back from Mexico for a while. Besides, you could walk a marching band through this place and he'd sleep through it."

"That's… That's weird, Ryan."

"At least he's not sleeping with everyone on campus."

"Yes, but I only had to live with my roommate part of a semester, Ryan. You've been with this guy what, three, four years now?"

"I know. There are times when I even miss Seth."

Summer felt a smile tug at her lips. It sounded like something she would say. "Sweet. Anyway, just have him call me."

"Will do. Night, Summer."

"Night."

He stayed sitting up in bed with the phone loosely hanging from his fingers even after he'd heard her hang up. He wasn't sure what about the conversation with Summer was bothering him the most, and before he could dedicate much thought to it, the phone was ringing again.

"Yeah?"

"What kind of greeting is that? That's how you answer your phone? Are you awake?"

"Summer wants you to call her."

"Is she mad?" Seth asked without even entirely processing Ryan's comment.

"No. I think she just misses you. She wants to hear your voice."

"That's…" Seth took a deep breath as he thought about it. "That's worrying. I don't think I've had one of those calls since her first few months with GEORGE."

"Yeah, well, she saw Taylor, so… yeah."

"What does seeing Taylor have to do with anything?"

"I don't know." Ryan paused for a moment, wondering why exactly he had mentioned his ex-girlfriend. Finally, he simply shook his head. "How were things with her father?"

"Great. I got his blessing and then some."

"Good. So you're done worrying."

Seth laughed. "We've met right?"

"So what are you worrying about now?"

"Actually, my dear friend Ryan, the worrying had to be put on hold for the time being."

Ryan stopped his hand which had been smoothing the sheets around him. He could feel his features freezing in place in fear of what Seth had managed to get himself into now. "Why?"

"I ran into an old friend."

"Taylor?"

Seth shook his head as he looked amazedly around him. "Ryan, are you willing to talk about you and Taylor yet?"

"No."

"Then stop bringing her up. No, man, I ran into Che."

"Che?"

"Summer's friend Che."

"Uh. And you said hi and moved along quickly?" Ryan asked, squeezing his eyes shut.

"No, Ryan. He's recruited me for a mission."

"Seth, the last time you and Che went on a mission, you ended up in jail for the night."

"Hey, it wasn't all bad. Che got to meet his soul mate."

"Is the soul mate with you?"

Seth scoffed. "No, they broke up."

"Seth," Ryan sighed as he got out of bed and started gathering clothes around his room. He put a hand to his forehead as he looked around the room. "Where are you?"

"On our way to Canada."

"Where are you exactly? I'm coming to see you."

* * *

There was a good chance that if she tugged at her shirt one more time, the hem would come undone and the material that was covering her top half would simply unravel. Despite knowing this was a distinct possibility, she couldn't stop the nervous movement of her fingers. Even after having made a life of her own for years, spending time with her mother still made Taylor nervous, and a nervous Taylor was never good, especially not for Taylor herself.

"Taylor, stop playing with your shirt. It might not be the greatest top there is, but it's hiding the baby fat you've never been able to lose."

"Hi, mom."

Veronica nodded as she moved her head to better contemplate her daughter. "You look well. Healthy. Everything is going well, I assume?"

"Everything's great." Taylor managed to squeeze out a smile for her mother. At least there was that.

Since the earthquake scare both women had come to understand that though they were completely incapable of expressing any emotions, they did care for one another and one another's safety as much as family members should. Everything else about their relationship was fairly the same with the added bonus that Taylor's mother insisted on hanging over her daughter's head the fact that she had stooped so low as to date a boy who had scraped his way out of Chino's woodwork.

"I was hoping you would wear black. Black is slimming and you wear it well."

"I look horrible in black," Taylor contradicted. "Besides, who cares? It's a baby shower. There's nothing but family here."

"Get with the times," Veronica told her as she moved across the room, grabbing a glass of champagne on a tray a waiter was floating by her. "It's the new modern family. These are joint affairs now. The husband attends, as do his friends. Even his single friends."

"All right, mother. I get it. You're not being very subtle."

"It's not a Townsend trait, dear. Now, let me introduce you to someone."

"I actually want to see Nicolette. I came all the way from Europe because she asked me to—"

Veronica sighed and rolled her eyes as she reached back for Taylor's hand. "It's her shower. She isn't going anywhere, Taylor. You'll have time to see her later. I—on the other hand—am not going to last very long. The men are too young, even for me, and the alcohol is never strong enough to keep me interested."

"That's charming, mother."

Taylor let her mother drag her along by the wrist. Once they had crossed the large room, Veronica stopped. It was only then that Taylor guessed why they where there.

"Taylor, this is Patrick. He's single. Good luck."

And then she left. She left Taylor standing awkwardly in front of a chubby man whose shirt was straining to stay closed and which was slightly stained. Patrick smiled up at her awkwardly, and quickly looked down as soon as their eyes made contact. Taylor worked her mouth open and closed for a few moments as she tried to find the best way to excuse herself.

"I… I have to go," she finally simply stuttered, all but running away from the man. Luckily, she only had to take a few steps before she met the only person she really wanted to see. "Nicolette!"

"Taylor! You made it. Fantastic." Nicolette grabbed her cousin's arm and moved her away from the crowd. "I just saw your mother leave the room, so you don't have to worry about her. I don't think she's going to be making another appearance."

"Unless it's to check up on me," Taylor sighed.

"Well, it's just for a few days, and then you're off again to Paris or London or whatever other wonderful location is your home for the moment. Just keep that in mind."

"Except…"

"Taylor?"

Taylor sighed as she took a look around the room at all the people joined together to celebrate her cousin's pregnancy. She lowered her eyes, but couldn't avoid the sight of the large hump that was now her cousin's stomach. She forced a smile onto her lips and looked up with exaggerated happiness.

"You know what? We'll talk about it later."

"Are you sure?" Nicolette asked, already distracted by the people waving and calling to her.

"Absolutely. Come on. Let's go hear what the latest gossip is."

"All right," Nicolette laughed.

Taylor smiled as she led her cousin toward the nearest group of women, but stopped quickly when she heard her phone ring.

"Oh, who…" her smile faded as she looked down at the caller ID. "You know what? I really have to take this. Go ahead and I'll join you in a minute."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah." Taylor shooed her cousin away with her hand. Once she was sure the woman was out of earshot, she flipped her phone open and pressed it to her ear. "Hello?"

* * *

"Cohen?" Summer asked as she answered her telephone. She was beyond looking at the caller ID, afraid that it would somehow prevent the number from being the one she longed to see.

"Sorry, it's just me."

Summer smiled despite her disappointment and shuffled in her seat to find a more comfortable position. "Hi, daddy."

"How are you doing, sweetheart?"

"I'm good. How are you?"

"Great. Are you waiting for Seth to call? Is this a bad time?"

Summer sighed as she shifted again. She'd been on the bus for over three hours now, and she simply couldn't wait for the next stop. Everyone else around her was sleeping, but without having heard from Seth in over twenty-four hours, she couldn't manage to find any rest of her own despite her best efforts.

"No. I just haven't heard from him in a while and I was hoping this was finally him."

"Oh." There was a pause on the line. "Well, you know Seth. He's probably just excited that he's finally got a date for when you'll be home with him, and he's letting himself get nervous."

"That was old Seth, dad. I thought we'd passed that."

Her father laughed over the line. "That boy is as in love with you now as he was the first time you called him by his real name. I don't think he'll ever be passed getting excited to see you."

"Let's hope so."

"But I called to talk about you. I already know all about Seth."

Summer sat up quickly at the words. "You do?"

"Sure." Neil coughed, clearing his throat. "We talk on the phone every now and then, whenever he misses you but feels he's annoyed you enough recently. If he can't talk to you, apparently talking about you with someone who loves you as much as he does is good enough."

"Well, when did you last talk?"

Again, her father hesitated. "I can't say I remember the last time he called me."

"Have you been able to reach him in the last few days?"

"I haven't tried to call Seth, Summer. I haven't had any reason to worry about him or call him."

"Right."

Neil bit his lip as he tried to stop himself from laughing at his daughter and having to think up even more ways of evading her questions without actually lying to her. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for his absence. But that's not why I called."

"I'm sorry. You're right."

"You sound tired, sweetie."

"Yeah," Summer sighed. "It's just a lot of work getting people ready for me to leave. I never realized how much I did until I had to show someone else how to do it."

"You're an important part of the team, Summer, but they have to understand that you can't live on a bus for the rest of your life and let GEORGE be all that you are. You have family and you have friends. You have a life to live as well."

"Yeah. It's just not that easy for these people to understand that sometimes, I guess."

"You're all right, though?"

Summer swallowed to stop her voice from cracking. She could feel the tears starting to prick her eyes, and blinked to stop any of them from falling. The last thing she wanted to do was worry her father when he was miles away and couldn't do anything to make her feel better, short of hunting Cohen down and making sure he finally called her.

"I'm okay. You're right, though. I am tired."

"Then you should get some sleep."

"Yeah."

"Call me tomorrow after you've gotten your rest."

"Okay," Summer agreed with one last loud breath.

"Good night. Love you."

"Love you, too."

She hung up the phone and let her head rest against the cool window of the bus, all too aware that she wasn't going to fall asleep until she was absolutely exhausted, or she heard Seth's voice.

"Seth?" Matthew asked her, peeking over the seat in front of her own.

"No. It was my father. I didn't wake you, did I?"

He shook his head and waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "So you still haven't heard from Seth, huh?"

"No. How did you even know that I was waiting to hear from him?"

"Small bus." Matthew shrugged.

Summer narrowed her eyes. Sure it was a small bus and there was no way of keeping a secret on the GEORGE team, but she couldn't remember having talked to anyone about missing Seth before the conversation she'd just had with her father. Summer shook her head, realising just how much sleep she must be needing if she couldn't even remember conversations she'd had earlier that day.

"But hey, I'm sure you'll hear from him at any moment, right?"

"Yeah. He'll probably call me as soon as he figures out the time difference between us." She moved her legs up so she could ball up on her side in the seat and find an almost comfortable position. "Night."

"Yeah. Good-night."

* * *

"So did your surprise visitor eventually reveal the reason for her presence in our normally serene household?" Sandy asked as he folded his pants to put them away for the night.

"She maintains that she was simply feeling lonely in that big house of hers with everyone gone for the week."

"So, remind me again. She's dating Frank or the Bullet?"

"She's dating Frank, she's working with Bullet. Or was working with Bullet…" Kirsten shook her head as she threw the sheets back to settle down for the night. "I don't know what they'll decide to do with New Match next month when Julie graduates and can start working in marketing probably wherever she wants."

"You think the Bullet's finally going to get the gun?"

"No. Kaitlin still adores him and apparently he and Frank are getting along great. Golfing and everything. I don't think he'll be going too far even if Julie would never date him again and if he never wanted to take up my half of the business when I left New Match."

"And she couldn't go to him with her loneliness this week?" Sandy asked as he slipped in to bed next to his wife.

"Sandy…"

"I'm just saying it's suspicious."

"A lot of what's going on these days is suspicious," Kirsten told him as she turned to shut off her bedside lamp. She kept her back to her husband as she sunk into her pillow.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

"Kirsten, are you seriously trying to tell me that you believe Julie Cooper-Nichol is only here for your companionship?"

"I'm saying," Kirsten said as she turned to face her husband, "that if you're so suspicious about it, you should do your own investigative reporting. If you want to know why she's here, you get it out of her."

"Maybe I will," Sandy told her with a determined nod and a kiss on the nose. He pulled away from his wife and narrowed his eyes when he wasn't met with the smile or content look that would usually adorn Kirsten's face when they were getting ready for bed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Sandy," Kirsten told him in a determined voice as she shifted in bed again so she wouldn't have to face him.

"Because you would tell me if anything was wrong, right?"

"As much as you would."

Sandy paused for a moment as his eyes travelled his wife's body. He took a deep breath and smiled before leaning in for another kiss.

"Good."

"Great."

"Now," Sandy continued as he pulled Kirsten against him. "Since Julie is your friend, maybe you should offer me some kind of reward if I can find out from her what exactly it is she's doing here."

"A reward, huh?"

"Absolutely. You do want to know what's wrong with her, don't you?"

"I'm all out of the party favours we gave Sophie's friends last week," Kirsten sighed.

"What? You have no more of the marbles or the toy cars or the crayons?"

"All out," Kirsten said with a shrug of her shoulders as she bit back her smile.

"Hmm… Well, what else could you possibly give me as a reward? Let me think…"

Sandy's eyes rolled away from his wife in thought as his hands wandered under the sheet to find her body. He played with the hem of her top until he could reach the skin beneath, and dropped his head to nuzzle her neck.

"I think I've found—"

"Hey, you two."

Kirsten and Sandy jumped as their door swung open and Julie suddenly appeared in front of them. The couple broke apart, though Sandy kept one hand against Kirsten, ready to pull her back the moment he felt it was safe to do so.

"I just wanted to thank you again for taking me in this week. It's so nice to have somewhere to go when that big house of mine is empty. I really do appreciate it." She stood there, watching them, waiting for something… Finally, when they still hadn't said anything after a few moments, her smile widened. "Well, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Sandy…"

Sandy nodded his head as Julie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Once the door was closed behind her, he turned unimpressed eyes toward Kirsten.

"The sooner you find out what the problem is, the sooner we can help and she'll be gone."

"I'll start tomorrow," Sandy told his wife with a sigh. "First thing."

* * *

Ryan sighed as he looked around the airport. He hated planes. He hated heights and he therefore hated planes. He was especially uncomfortable jumping on a flight that happened to have some extra empty seats on it, but he wasn't about to let Seth run away to Canada and get arrested. He especially wasn't going to let any such thing happen when stopping Seth would offer the perfect distraction from the thoughts of Taylor that refused to leave his mind.

He sighed again as he tried to figure out the fastest way to the ticket counter.

"Ryan!"

He looked up in surprise at the sound of his name. His eyes widened as he saw Kaitlin rushing toward him, bag in her hand and boy in tow.

"Kaitlin?"

"How did you know I was coming?" she asked as she looped her arm around his and started guiding them toward the exit.

"I didn't. I'm on my way to see Seth."

"Seth? You can see Seth any time. How often do you get to see me, huh, Ryan? Don't you think you can make a little time for me?"

Ryan shook his head as he let her lead him along. "Seth's about to let Che bring him to Canada for some sort of secret mission."

"Wow. Well, Summer's going to kill him for even thinking about that, so there's really no point in you getting involved now since you're too late anyway."

"Okay, so, why are you here?"

"I'm visiting you," she told him in a high, chipper voice.

"Why?"

"Can't a girl just visit her kind of brother?"

"Kaitlin," Ryan warned in an icy voice as he stopped moving.

She sighed, her hand still gripping his arm and helping her turn around to face him. "Fine. I need your help."

"With what, exactly?"

"With Colin." Kaitlin smiled and waved toward the man who had been following them. "This is Colin."

"Colin," Ryan nodded. He turned his attention back to Kaitlin. "What about Colin?"

"He's my husband."

"Kaitlin," Ryan sneered.

Kaitlin lifted her left hand so Ryan could see the ring on her finger.

"My husband," she repeated. "So, how do we get to your dorm room?"

"I really have to start avoiding you Cooper women," Ryan muttered as he let Kaitlin drag him toward the nearest taxi.


	4. Chapter 4: Let the meddling begin

Here we are again.

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. I'm happy to see people's reaction to Che. He really has nothing to do with the story, but I had to fit him in somewhere because he's so much fun.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Let the meddling begin**

"Huh."

"We're still on?"

Seth shook his head and turned his attention to Che who had frozen, holding up a backpack and rope in his hands.

"Yeah," Seth finally answered.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah. So are you watching this?" Seth asked, pointing to the television.

"I've seen it. It's atrocious, isn't it?"

"Sure. Did you see the size of those sticks? We're going to go protest against the people with the big sticks, is that what you're telling me?"

"They're called clubs, Seth. And someone must stop them all before they injure one more seal."

"Sure. No, I get that." He bobbed his head nervously. "But, isn't there someone we can talk to other than the men with the big sticks?"

"Summerbear would be so proud of you, Seth."

"Hm. Sure. If she knew."

Che lifted his head from where he had been concentrating on the bag in front of him. "You haven't told Summer about our adventure?"

"I haven't really talked to her lately," Seth told him, moving toward Che to help him with the miscellaneous objects that were scattered on the floor of his hotel room. "I have to call her."

"So call her."

"We'll finish this first, and then I'll call her."

Che stopped playing with the backpack and reached out to grab Seth's arm. "I sense some distress, Seth."

"You're a very perceptive man, Che."

Che bit his bottom lip and nodded slowly. "I also sense some sarcasm, but it's an aura I've learned blends well with you."

"Thanks."

"Why won't you call Summer?"

"I will call Summer." Seth shrugged, picking up a Swiss army knife and fiddling with it until a blade popped out, causing him to jump back in surprise. "Right after we're done this if I survive. I promise."

They both jumped when Seth's cell phone rang. Che watched as Seth tried to ignore it.

"Aren't you going to get that?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm talking to you; it would be rude."

Che nodded, then quickly reached out and grabbed the phone before Seth could stop him.

"Seth's telephone, hello?"

"Hello? Seth?"

"No. This is Che."

"Is Seth still alive? He hasn't already gotten killed, has he?"

"Have no fear. Otter-Seth is still alive, well, and about to call Summer according to him."

"Don't believe that. He's absolutely lying."

Che nodded slowly as he contemplated Seth. "His aura is slightly murky."

"My aura is not murky. And no one, Ryan," Seth yelled without having to ask who was on the phone, "asked you for your opinion."

"He always asks me for my opinion; I just offered it before he had a chance this time," Ryan muttered with a sigh. "So he's still hiding from Summer with you, huh?"

"He says you're hiding from Summer," Che offered.

"I'm not hiding. I'm helping a friend. Che tell Ryan that he's being a horrible brother by not supporting this crusade."

"Blood of the sea otter," Che sighed. "It's an amazing pleasure to talk with you. I send you a hug over the airwaves."

"Uh huh. Is there any way I could talk to Seth?"

"Of course. I look forward to our next conversation." Che moved forward and passed the phone to Seth who took it with a loud, dramatic sigh.

"What?"

"Stop hiding from Summer. You're going to get killed or arrested just so you don't have to face her."

"I'm not avoiding Summer."

"Then what are you doing?"

Seth looked over at Che who was packing their bags once again. He cleared his throat to be sure his voice wouldn't squeak when he talked. "Che and I are going to Canada to protest the seal hunt."

"Why?"

"They whack seals with clubs, Ryan. How would you feel if you were being whacked with a club?"

"Like I was dating Summer?"

"Hey now," Seth protested weakly, finally offering nothing more than a shrug as he imagined Ryan sending him one of his signature looks.

"It's a journey. A challenge," Che insisted as he grabbed the phone from Seth.

"No. Asking Summer to marry him is a challenge. Going to Canada so that he can delay asking her, that's procrastination."

Che grinned as he turned to Seth. "You're asking Summer to marry you?"

"Eventually. After this very important thing I have to do."

Che's mouth gaped open for a moment. "Seals have been hunted for millions of years, Seth. You and Summer's love—while eternal—is but in it's infancy. It requires more nurturing and affection. You should go to her."

"Whoa, let's not get crazy here. She's stressing out about her final days at GEORGE. She's got tons of work. She's always on the clock." Seth worked his mouth as he tried to find more excuses.

Che held up his finger as he listened to Ryan over the line. He offered a quick salutation before hanging up. "He says his taxi has arrived, but that we shouldn't do anything before he calls us back. We are to stay here until we have a better handle on the situation."

Seth grabbed his phone from Che.

"That won't work. Who knows how long it will take until Ryan gets back to us? It could take a long time. Summer won't mind waiting. She's patient now." He jumped when the phone in his hands rang, looking down quickly. "And… and her father's calling me. Hello? Dr. Roberts?"

Che watched Seth move around him, then leaned forward so he could better hear Seth's half of the conversation.

"What? … No, I'm not cheating on your daughter; I'm asking her to marry me… She's what?... What do you mean miserable?... Well, I've been getting ready to ask her to marry me. It takes a lot… Yeah… No, I would be worried too if I couldn't get a hold of her after trying for over twenty-four hours… Yeah, I will… All right… Good-bye, si—" Seth's head snapped back, and he stared at his phone for a few moments before turning to Che. "The connection died. Apparently I have to go call Summer now."

"His aura is definitely orange," Che mumbled as he turned to watch the seals on the television.

* * *

"I don't want you to go."

"What?"

"You heard me. I don't want you to go."

"Summer, no offence, but I really don't think you're in a position—"

"Oh, I'm in all positions, Cohen, and you better believe it."

She couldn't see it from hundreds of miles away, but she was well aware that he was rolling his eyes at her and shuffling his feet. Well, perhaps not the shuffling part. She had missed his very belated call when it finally came, and it was only now when she was sitting on her temporary bed and he was sitting wherever Che had led him so far, that they were getting to talk.

"Summer, you're travelling across the country and have been for years, doing this great thing and making a difference. I'm talking about one trip to Canada with Che. That's hardly the drama you're making it out to be."

"Seth, the last time you and Che had an adventure, you ended up in jail. Is that really an experience you want to repeat?"

"I'm not going to end up in jail, Summer."

"Canadian jail with lumberjacks and hockey players," Summer continued, ignoring him. "You're too pretty and fragile to go to jail, Cohen."

"Aww, you think I'm pretty," he laughed nervously.

Summer narrowed her eyes despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "You do realise I'm keeping a tally of how many smacks I owe you, right? You're up to twenty. I suggest you wear a lot of layers the next time we see each other."

"Layers, got it."

Summer huffed. "So, is this Canadian escapade why Ryan was so worried when I talked to him on the phone the other night?"

"I guess so," Seth answered before he even realised he was lying. At least, he decided, he was lying for a good cause this time.

"Just…" She sighed over the phone as she let her body slouch down on the bed. "Please don't go, Seth."

He shook his head at his weakness. She had him more than whipped. He adored her to the point where he would do anything to make her happy, and obviously the prospect of him, Canada, and Che wasn't something that was going to bring any sunshine to her life.

"Fine," he sighed.

"What?"

"I won't go to Canada."

"Really?" Summer straightened at the sound of his voice.

"Really." He nodded to her, miles between them. "I promise."

"Good."

Seth rubbed his forehead as he tried to both follow the conversation and figure out what he could do next to delay having to confront Summer and possibly the second wedding rejection in his short adult life.

He sighed again. "Well, I know you're serious when you call me Seth."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and suddenly Seth took note of the tone of her voice.

She had asked him not to go. She had only threatened to hurt him once. She had sighed, she had said please, and she had used his first name.

"Are you okay?"

"What?"

"Are you okay? You sound tired, or stress, or… something not good."

Summer shifted the phone to her other ear and let herself fall back against the pillows until she was on her back. She was tired and stressed and a whole lot of other emotions on top of those that were only now starting to fade as she listened to her boyfriend's voice on the line and believed that he wouldn't be putting his life in danger anytime soon.

"I am tired. And stressed, I guess. Leaving is just a lot harder than I though it would be."

"You don't want to? You want to stay on with GEORGE?" Seth asked, clearing his voice to hide the way it cracked at the thought of being away from her for another year or more.

"God, no. I can't wait to be home with you. I just… It's training the new people and making sure that all the paperwork is complete and remembering all the procedures so I can show someone else… It's hard."

"You need me over there?"

She smiled at the question. A few minutes earlier she was coercing him not to leave the country and at the first sound of a crack in her voice, he was ready to be wherever she needed him, making sure she was getting enough sleep and that no one was giving her a hard time. Thank God she hadn't mentioned anything about Matthew to him.

"No. I just need to know that you aren't going to Canada and that I can sleep through the night without worrying about you."

"I'm sorry." Seth let his body slide to the ground so he could sit with his head leaned back against the wall. He could hear Che singing loudly in the shower and tried to tune the man's voice out. "I didn't want you to worry. I didn't mean to add to your stress."

"I know. Actually, can you believe that I was talking to Taylor about you?"

"Taylor?"

"Yeah, she just showed up and I guess she just seemed like a good person to talk to. I don't know what I was thinking. The girl does not have the best relationship track record."

"Wait. Does Ryan know she's around?"

"Yeah, we were talking and—"

Seth let out a chuckled as he shook his head. "Now that makes sense. I knew something was up when he mentioned her in our phone conversation."

"He seemed a little—"

"He's worse. Trust me."

Summer let out her own laugh. "What are we going to do about those two?"

"I have no idea."

Summer sighed as she watched her roommate for the week walk through the door of her room. "I should go. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"You'll definitely talk to me tomorrow. Maybe even a few times to make up for the last few days."

"Don't make promises you won't be keeping."

"Don't make me call you every hour and annoy you to the point where you block out my number.

"Fair enough," Summer laughed. "Good night."

"Night," Seth answered, looking up at the clear sky above his head. "Love you."

"Love you too, Cohen."

They hung up before either of them could start clinging to the sound of the other breathing, all too aware that that could last much longer than they had time to spend on the silence between them.

"Ryan Atwood," Seth finally mumbled to himself, shaking his head. "What has that woman done to you?"

* * *

"Explain it again."

"Ryan, no matter how many times she explains it, it won't change what she's saying."

Ryan took a deep breath and looked over to Kaitlin. "Seriously?"

"Colin," Kaitlin quickly intervened, watching as Ryan fisted his hand next to his body, "why don't you go get us some food? Please."

"But I—"

"Remember what I said about Ryan punching?"

Colin looked over at Ryan, noticing the clenched jaw and the expanded movement of his chest with every deep breath he took.

"I'll go get us some food. What do you want?"

"Whatever," Kaitlin shrugged as she waved her hand in his direction.

They waited in silence until Colin had grabbed his jacket and left the room, sending one last wary look over his shoulder.

"Kaitlin…" Ryan warned.

"Don't get mad, Ryan. That's not you anymore, remember? You went cage fighting and that knocked the violence right out of you."

He sat next to her on his dorm bed. He rubbed the palm of his hands against his jeans, trying to wipe away the sweat that had formed there from the tight fists he had been making. "I'm not mad. I'm not going to get mad. Just tell me what happened."

Kaitlin sighed and suddenly bit her lip, looking much more nervous and awkward than he could ever remember seeing her. She took a deep breath.

"The thing is that I don't even know if you were serious that time we talked, but you did say that you would always be like a brother to me, and I know that I do have a brother now, and so do you really, but he's like this tiny kid and he can't help me and I need help Ryan and I guess I could have gone somewhere else, but I just didn't want to go to anyone else with—"

"Kaitlin," Ryan interrupted, "stop pulling a Seth and just tell me what happened."

She stared at him for a moment, then without a word, she raised her left hand.

"I know you're married. I just don't understand why."

"Neither do I. It just… There was party and then time apart and then everyone was so happy, and I'm not used to that, and I hadn't gotten in trouble in so long and—"

"Kaitlin!" Ryan interrupted. "What are you saying?

Kaitlin chuckled and shook her head. "I'm saying I'm married and that that's not all."

"There's more?"

With a tight smirk, Kaitlin reached into her bag and took out a small box. She opened it, and pointed the contents in Ryan's direction.

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"That's a pregnancy test."

"That's a pregnancy test," Kaitlin agreed with a nod. "I figured you'd know a positive when you saw one."

Ryan said nothing, nodding as though he didn't understand the insult; not able to process the insult as his eyes stayed glued to the test.

"You'll help, right?"

His eyes travelled quickly from the test to Kaitlin. Help? He barely knew where to start.

"Yeah," he finally answered with the shadow of a nod. "I'll help."

* * *

"Summer? Are you still up?"

"Hmm?" She looked up quickly from the papers in front of her. She barely spared Matthew a glance before she let her eyes drop back to the sheets. "Yeah, I wanted to get a little more done before I went to bed."

"It's two in the morning."

"Is it?" She glanced quickly at her watch and at the doors of the hotel. She hadn't wanted to bother her roommate's slumber, and seeing as it was a slow time for the hotel business, Summer had tried to her luck at spending the evening working in the lobby. She'd let Seth be a distraction so long, that she was behind on her work and was hoping to get as much as possible done in hopes of leaving even earlier than scheduled. "The freshmen are going to be exhausted tomorrow."

"What?"

Summer laughed and shook her head as she looked up at him again. "The freshmen went out to some bar one of them heard about. They haven't come back yet."

"Do you see what I'm going to have to deal with once you're gone? You can't really be leaving me with these children, can you, Summer?"

"I am definitively leaving GEORGE, and you need to stop bothering me about it, Matthew."

"But what am I going to do without you?" Matthew asked as he moved to sit next to her on the sofa.

Summer looked up as she felt him shifting next to her. The lobby was dead at this time of the night, and there had been plenty of other seats he could have chosen without having to sit right next to her, disturbing all the papers she had strategically placed around her.

"You'll just have to find someone else to bother. Or, hey, here's an idea. Go to bed. It's late or early, or whatever… And you don't have to be up at this time of the night, so don't be."

"But there's no one I want to bother other than you, Summer."

"Well, I'm not sticking around just for your entertainment."

Matthew shifted closer to her, leaning in. "And you know there's no one I'll want to watch working as much as you. There's no one nearly as beautiful and—"

"Ew. What are you doing?" Summer asked as she pushed his slowly approaching form away from her. She couldn't even wince for him when he fell off the small couch and onto the floor. "What the hell are you doing, Matthew?"

"I'm just showing you how much I'm going to miss you."

"I don't care how much you're going to miss me. I care about how much my boyfriend misses me and how much I miss him and everyone else from back home. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to miss you. I mean you were a really good friend for a while Matthew, but ever since Collette…" Summer bit her tongue at the name.

It was no secret that when Collette had chosen to leave GEORGE to return to her studies, Matthew—who had been dating her at the time—had not taken it well. He'd had a full out tantrum, accusing her of everything from sleeping with other guys to leaving in order to sabotage their relationship and be rid of him.

"Don't say her name," he hissed at her. "She has nothing to do with this."

Summer shook her head. "There is no this. I'm with Seth, and you know it. I haven't spent the four years I've been working here being faithful to him just so I can cheat on him a few weeks before we start our life together. I love Seth."

"Fine, you can love Seth all you want. But I think we both know that there's something between us, and I think that we should pay credit to that before we part."

He swooped in on her, his hands reaching for her and his lips set on a course toward her own. Before she could go rage blackout on him and make sure he would never dare try anything close to what he was doing, however, someone else interrupted their little escapade.

"Hey."

Summer and Matthew both looked up quickly to see Jessica and Shawn—another of the freshmen—looking down at them. Shawn gave a little chuckle, a squeeze to Jessica's elbow, and then moved away toward the elevators.

"Hey," Summer answered Jessica, pushing Matthew away from her, and once again sending him crashing to the floor. "How was the club?"

"It was good. You guys weren't waiting up for us, were you?" Jessica asked, as she let her eyes travel between Summer and Matthew.

"No. I was trying to get some last minute stuff done, and Matthew was just annoying me. He was leaving now though."

Matthew gave her a wide smile. "I don't think we were done our conversation."

"I think the only addition there could be to our conversation would be a very strategically placed kick in your direction. So, do you really want to keep chatting about this?"

Matthew's eyes widened, then narrowed, looking for the truth in her words and her eyes. Finally, he seemed to decide that he couldn't find anything there that suggested Summer would not, in fact, cause him serious bodily harm if he didn't leave her alone. He shrugged and sent a wink in Jessica's direction before leaving them.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked as she moved to sit on the coffee table in front of Summer.

"Yeah. I'm just tired and getting more and more excited about leaving this place."

"I mean with him. You didn't look like you were enjoying whatever he was trying to do or say to you, and he didn't look like he was going to give up on it anytime soon." Jessica looked back in the direction Matthew had left. "He kind of creeps me out."

Summer shook her head. "He was okay when he was dating Collette, but now… I don't know, he's just been different since then."

"And slightly obsessed with you."

Summer's brow scrunched at the thought. "You think?"

"He's always watching you, Summer. All he's been talking about lately is how he can't let you leave because you're the best and stuff. It's weird. I don't like it."

"Don't worry about him," Summer said with a shrug. "He's not psychotic or anything. And besides, in a few weeks, he'll be on a bus and I'll be in my home with my boyfriend. I can definitely scare his ass away from mine for that long."

"If you're sure," Jessica shrugged.

"I'm sure." Summer took a look at the papers scattered around her and let out a loud breath at the prospect of all the work she still had ahead of her. "So, tell me about you and Shawn…"

* * *

"Sandy Cohen, don't even think about it."

"Hi, honey," Sandy said as he turned to smile at his wife, his hand not leaving the doorknob it was firmly holding. "I just noticed that we were out of milk and bagels, and since we really can't start our mornings without those, I'm just going to slip out and—"

"You are not leaving me alone with that woman."

"Honey, she's your friend."

"I love Julie like a… a…"

"Stepmother?" Sandy offered.

"Like a sister," Kirsten corrected, as she moved forward to remove Sandy's hand from the doorknob and push him away from the door. "But she is driving me insane. I don't know if I can stand an entire week of this. Plus you were gone most of yesterday. You have to help me with her at some point."

"Can't we just kick her out?"

"No, we can't. She has no one to be with right now and she's worried because Frank's been distant lately… Which," Kirsten said as she reached out to pull Sandy's face towards hers when his eyes seemed to waver, "I told her was passing, it would seem."

"I haven't been distant."

Kirsten raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to find out what's really wrong with her and why she's here. I'm not buying her alibi."

"She has… Wait." Sandy grabbed Kirsten's arms as he moved around her, looking one way and the other, trying to search through the house without moving forward. "Where is she right now?"

"She's around," Kirsten told him with an awkward smile.

Sandy's eyes narrowed. "Where's Sophie?"

Kirsten smiled again.

"You left my daughter alone with that woman?

"I couldn't take anymore, Sandy. She was driving me crazy and she kept complaining. Did you know that apparently our water is too chlorinated? Yeah, she can taste it. It doesn't taste right. Neither do our ice cubes, apparently."

"I feel your pain, but you met her before you met me, so you can't blame me for her coming into your life and just staying there like a roach or something. I would have warned you about that woman if I had been around."

"Yes, well, now you have to pay for not coming into my life sooner, I guess."

"That's not—"

"Daddy, look at me!"

Sandy's eyes widened as he looked down at Sophie. "That is not my daughter."

"Aren't I pretty?" she asked, twirling around. Her face was made-up, her shirt had been tied on the side so it only reached midriff, and she wore high heeled shoes from Kirsten's closet. "Aunt Julie did it."

"_Aunt_ Julie?"

"Well she can't call me grandma, Sandy. I'm not nearly old enough for that," Julie said as she sauntered into the room, placing a hand on Sophie's head.

Sandy sent a quick look in Kirsten's direction who returned his worried gaze. "Julie, I was just about to head out to pick up some food. Why don't you come with me so we're sure I don't get anything you don't like?"

"Fabulous," Julie cheered with a quick clap of her hands. "Because, honestly, your ice cream selection is severely lacking. And let's not even get started on the types of bread…"

Sandy gave his wife one last helpless look as he followed Julie out of the house, only to have Kirsten mouth him a thank you before pulling Sophie away to get cleaned.

* * *

"Where are you going now? I can't imagine Summer will let you tag along while she's traipsing around the country like a savage."

Taylor bit her tongue and reminded herself that she had almost shot her mother once before she finally spoke.

"I'm going to visit some friends in New York before deciding. I might go back to Europe or stay here for a while. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm done studying."

"I suppose that is a luxury you have when your mother keeps paying for your education."

"I haven't—"

"It doesn't matter whether or not you took the money, Taylor. I still offered and that's what counts. You know if you had more than one friend, you could make this work. It's your own fault for dating that boy from Chino. If you had just been his friend, he and Seth would still be talking to you."

"They're not—" Taylor stopped herself again and refolded her sweater before putting it in her suitcase. Her suitcase, she sighed, which was resting on the couch because her mother hadn't bothered to get a room with two beds despite the fact that she knew Taylor would be coming to the shower. "Thanks for the advice, mom. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Seriously, you are sadder than you were before this episode with those three. I bet you haven't even been on a date since you last saw Ryan. You need to move on, Taylor. I'm sure he has. You left. Why wouldn't he?"

Taylor took in a deep, shaky breath. She turned to face her mouth. She stopped. She'd been down this road one time too many.

"You're right. I'm sad, and I don't see how being around you is going to help. So, goodbye mother. I'll let you know where I've landed when I make up my mind."

She left with a quick wave before Veronica could stop her. She cringed when she heard the door slam behind her. She had no idea where she was going.


	5. Chapter 5: The plot thickens

Slightly delayed by Thanksgiving here in Canada, but here we go.

For those of you who are noticing that this story is strongest on the Seth/Summer side, good eye! This originally was a Seth/Summer story, but it just didn't seem to hold up so everyone else got thrown in the mix with their own storyline.

Also, for those worried about Matthew, I only promise that this isn't an angst story; so no guns, kidnapping, rape, murder or violence (unless someone really gets Ryan mad on the last one).

Once again, thanks for all the reviews and comments.

On to the chapter.

* * *

**Cha****pter 5: The plot thickens**

"What do you mean he isn't there?"

Summer rolled her eyes at the sound of Che's voice.

Seth. She'd been calling Seth, not Che, and though her boyfriend had promised her that he wouldn't get involved in any of Che's wilderness plans, she wasn't encouraged by the fact that her college friend, rather than Seth, was answering her boyfriend's phone.

"Well, where is he, Che?" She nodded at someone passing by, quickly refocusing her attention on the conversation. "A mission? This mission better not have come from you. I know we've talked about the differences between beginning of college Summer and real Summer, but I don't think you quite understand the degree of my rage blackouts."

A folder of papers was plopped onto her lap, and Summer jumped at the uncomfortable weight. She looked up to find Matthew staring down at her, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"Are you going to be joining us for this meeting, or what?"

"Yeah, just a second." Summer rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to her phone conversation. "Che, I really have to go now, but if I don't hear from Seth in the next few hours, you better believe that you and I are going to have some serious words. I'll find you, Che, and it won't be pretty." She huffed when he offered her nothing more than a sweet good-bye and turned her attention to Matthew. "I thought the meeting wasn't for another hour."

"I moved it up. I could have told you if you hadn't been busy talking to your boyfriend all morning."

Summer shook her head as she got up from her seat. "I was talking to a friend for about fifteen minutes. I haven't been able to reach Seth since yesterday… again."

"Aw," Matthew cooed. "Trouble in paradise? Maybe you should have jumped at my offer yesterday. Now Sean's the one having all the fun while you're pining after him like one of those stupid girls who don't understand what happens when a couple is separated by a number of time zones."

"I appreciate the concern, really, but Seth and I are fine. We're wonderful even. And in less than a month, we'll be in the same time zone, permanently. So you won't have to worry about us anymore."

Matthew laughed. "You don't really believe that, do you, Summer? You aren't that naïve, are you? Let me give you one last chance. You can get together with me, stay on board with GEORGE, and have a great time saving the world, or you can go home to Cedric and realise after a week that you two aren't meant for each other anymore, and then you'll wish you could be back with me who will have moved on to someone who appreciates me and all the things I have to offer her both physically and economically. What's it going to be?"

"I'm going to go to a meeting. I'm going to try not to vomit at the thought of us together, and then I'm going to call Seth and tell him how much I miss him." She offered him a quick smile, and then pushed passed him and into the room where they were meeting.

She felt his eyes watching her as she left him behind. Summer nodded when she found herself walking behind Melinda, one of the few people remaining from when Summer had first joined GEORGE.

"What was that about?" Melinda asked her.

"What?"

"That fight that everyone on this floor could hear if they cared to do so. Are you having a problem with Matthew?"

"I'm not having a problem with him, but apparently he's suddenly having a problem with me and Seth and my leaving." Summer shook her head. "I love you guys, but I honestly can't wait until I'm done here. These last few months are turning out to be nothing but hell."

Melinda shrugged. "He gets fixated. He's never been dangerous, but he is a brat. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, though."

"Yeah?" Summer asked. "Why not?"

"Two reasons. One: you're out of here in less than a month. Two: I have a feeling he's not going to last much longer."

"What? He's been here longer than I have. Why would you think Matthew was on his way out?"

Melinda looked around them quickly and leaned in to Summer. She lowered her voice. "He's got a meeting with the directors of GEORGE tomorrow. Rumour has it he's been up to something he shouldn't have been doing. We think he's getting the boot."

"What's he been—"

"Ladies," Chad, a senior executive of the group called as he moved toward them, placing a hand on either of their backs, "shall we move this into the room and get this meeting started."

"Sure," Melinda agreed with a wide smile. She sent a nod in Summer's direction and mouthed that they would talk later.

Summer looked back one last time and jumped when she saw Matthew staring at her. She quickly moved into the room and took a seat between two occupied chairs.

* * *

Seth's feet tapped out a rhythm that seemed familiar to him, but was too fast to actually be from any of the music he'd been listening to on the way to Summer. She was going to kill him, he'd realised.

She would have been fine with his visit before—probably even happy that he was taking the time to visit her—but then he'd lost his phone. There was no way for her to reach him, and she'd probably been trying to call him since they're last conversation to make sure he was far away from Che and all of Che's weird plans.

Yep, she was going to kill him.

Not to mention the fact that he was just plain nervous. He was primarily there to make sure Summer was fine, but there was no denying that the ring box he carried with him was burning a hole in his pocket. He wasn't sure he'd be able to make it through whatever time he was going to be there without asking her to marry him, and asking her to marry him definitely made him nervous.

"Are you okay, man?"

Seth looked up to find a boy a few years younger than him watching him with wary eyes.

"Yeah. I'm just waiting for someone."

The boy looked around the hallway. "Who?"

"Summer. Summer Roberts?"

"Oh, Summer. Are you going to replace her when she leaves?" The boy looked around the hallway once more, shrugged his shoulders, and let himself fall next to Seth on the floor.

"Nah, I'm here to offer her some moral support so she can eventually leave. I'm her boyfriend."

"No, you're not."

Seth let a small smile tug at his lips. "Excuse me?"

"Well… I mean…" His brow scrunched for a moment as he thought about it. Suddenly his eyes widened and he smiled. "Oh, you guys have, like, an open relationship and stuff?"

"No."

"Really, because yesterday, I'm pretty sure Jess and I interrupted her making out with some other dude."

"I'm pretty sure you didn't," Seth answered with a quick nod.

"I'm really actually quite sure I did."

Seth rolled his eyes at the guy. "You didn't. I'm dating Summer, and if anyone was trying to touch her, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they were walking with a limp today."

"Sure…" the guy said slowly as he watched Seth. He got up, shrugging his shoulders. "All I know—"

"I'm dating Summer," Seth repeated as he watched the boy walk away.

Seth shook his head as he sat for a moment longer, watching the door he'd been told separated him from the girl who would hopefully soon be his fiancé. He reached into his pocket to take out the cell phone he'd quickly purchased when he couldn't find his. He dialled without looking down at the numbers and started talking before the person on the other end of the line could actually answer.

"Hey, so some guy just told me that he saw Summer making out with someone yesterday."

"Seth, I don't have time to— Wait, what? Don't panic. Summer loves you and she would never—"

"The thing is I'm not panicking, Ryan. I didn't panic at all when he told me. I knew it wasn't true."

"You're not panicking?"

Seth shrugged despite the fact that he knew Ryan couldn't see him, and tugged at the edge of his pants. "Summer would never cheat on me. She loves me, and in a few hours, we're going to be engaged. I have no reason to panic."

"That's… that's oddly normal of you, Seth. Did they give you drugs on your flight down?"

"No. But I could definitely use them right now. I have a feeling Summer's meeting is going to last just about forever. What are you up to?"

Ryan took a few unsteady breaths as he tried to process the conversation. "You want to talk about me?"

"I have to wait for Summer to get out of this meeting, and you sounded like something big was going on. What's up?"

"Well, Kaitlin showed up at the airport yesterday and apparently she's here to visit me."

"Mini-Coop?" Seth asked as he nodded to the people walking by him despite the confused looks he was getting.

"Don't call her that, but yeah."

"Is she on study break?"

"She's married."

Seth laughed. "Hey, those Coopers, really work at making life interesting for you, don't they? Who'd she marry?"

"Some ass," Ryan sighed. "She was trying to make her mother angry or something, and I don't know… she got married and she's pregnant."

"Whoa. That's weird, though. I thought Kaitlin was getting along with Julie these days. In fact I thought Kaitlin was rocking the whole studious girl thing."

"Apparently not. I guess you never know with Kaitlin."

"You never know with women, Ryan. All right, I'm going to scope out these GEORGE guys, see if Summer gave any of them a black eye for hitting on her, or see if any of them know of somewhere romantic where I can propose to Summer."

"But what should I do about Kaitlin?"

"I don't know. What did you do about Taylor?"

"What?" Ryan asked, his voice squeaking in a high note. "I haven't even mentioned… I mean I haven't thought of Taylor—"

"Yeah, no, that's convincing. But I meant what did you do when Taylor was getting divorced? How did you get her out of that one?"

"Taylor was married," Ryan mumbled to himself. "We could just ask Taylor for advice."

"What did I just say?"

"So…" Ryan cleared his throat a few times. "Do you know how I could find Taylor?"

"Not really." Seth shrugged again. "Check her blog, she's usually really open about everything on there from what I hear, and I do mean everything. If you guys ever hook up again, make sure you have editor's rights on that. I'll ask Summer if I ever get to see her."

"All right. Well, good luck with the whole proposal thing, man."

"Thanks. Good luck with the women."

"Thanks. I think I'm going to need it more than you will."

Seth nodded to no one in particular as he hung up. He looked around watching the people milling about the hotel hall. Suddenly, he noticed a guy with a cast on his hand.

"Hey, hey you, did some short girl break your hand?"

* * *

"Anything?"

"Nothing but the confirmation that something is definitely going on," Sandy told his wife as they both leaned around the corner to watch Julie as she tried to make herself some lunch. "Definitely something going on."

"But what?" Kirsten asked.

"I'm not sure. I tried calling Frank, but he was barely any help. He sounded surprised that Julie was here, mumbled something about a plan, said he had something right there with him, and then stuttered about how he couldn't wait to get his hands on Kaitlin."

"Kaitlin?"

Sandy shrugged. "Whatever Frank was looking for, or whatever he found, he definitely was not happy with Kaitlin."

"I hope it wasn't clown porn again."

"What?" Sandy asked with a loud laugh.

"Be happy you weren't involved in that one. So, Frank turned out not to be the greatest source… but, hey, he answered his phone."

Sandy shrugged. "So?"

"So? So Julie told us that he was away fishing where she would never be able to reach him. He obviously didn't go that far if you were able to reach him."

"So he lied?"

"I'm not so sure he's the one who lied…" Kirsten said as she narrowed her eyes.

"Julie? What tricks—" Sandy stopped and frowned when his cell phone rang. "Oh, I have to take this. I might have to go out too. Can you hold down the fort with Julie a while longer. She's got exams in a few days, right? She can't stay that long."

"Yeah, well, as soon as she's gone you and I are having a serious talk about all these mysterious phone calls you've been getting, so be happy she's still around."

Sandy leaned down and pressed his lips against Kirsten's. "That may be asking for just a little too much."

Kirsten shook her head as she watched him walk into his office and close the door behind him. She quickly turned her attention back to Julie to distract herself from her distracted husband.

"All right, Julie," Kirsten said as she entered the kitchen. "It's time you and I talked."

"Great," Julie smiled widely. "What about?"

"About the fact that Frank isn't on a fishing trip and that you would be happy with a bottle of wine and Bob Seger if you had the chance to an empty house for a week. So, spill. What's really going on?"

"I just…"

"Julie," Kirsten warned.

"Fine, here." Julie reached over for her purse which she'd kept close to her side since she'd arrived at the Cohen household. Kirsten watched as Julie dug her hand in, shaking her head. "I'll just show you, I… Where is it?"

Julie's resolve melted into panic as she kept searching her purse. She flipped the handbag over and let the contents fall onto the counter, spreading them around as she searched for something. She stopped suddenly, and fire suddenly grew in her eyes.

"Wait until I get my hands on Kaitlin," Julie huffed as she hurried out of the kitchen.

"Not a good day to be Kaitlin," Kirsten muttered to herself as she turned to open the refrigerator.

* * *

"I hate my life."

"Well, no one forced you to get pregnant and married. Now, would you just please dial."

"Ryan," Kaitlin whined, "you know she's just going to give me a speech, and you've already given me a speech, so why do we have to involve Taylor? I mean, sure, she's nothing but fun when she goes all crazy and acts as a great distraction from the rest of the boring Newpsies, but—"

"Call Taylor, Kaitlin. Tell her what the problem is, and tell her that you need advice."

"Can't you just call her?"

Ryan shrank away from the telephone, an unhappy frown on his face that Kaitlin couldn't remember ever having seen him wear. "No. I have to go… workout. I'm jogging, or punching bag, or… Call Taylor."

He was gone before Kaitlin could ask anything more of him, nothing but his wallet and keys with him, leaving her to wonder how exactly he would work out in jeans and a T-shirt. She shrugged at Colin who had been listening to their conversation from his seat in front of Ryan's computer. Kaitlin dialled Taylor's cell phone number and dropped back against the mattress.

"Taylor? Hey, it's Kaitlin."

"Kaitlin?" Taylor asked in confusion. "Hi. How are you?"

"Um… I'm not sure."

"What happened?"

"I'm married and pregnant."

Taylor froze. She shooed away the waitress that approached her with the offer of more coffee and turned to face the window of the diner rather than the other patrons. "What?"

"Pregnant and married. How are you?"

"Kaitlin? What… what are you doing?"

"I'm not sure, which is why I called you. I just… I know you've been married before and I was reading your blog so I know that you were—"

"Yeah," Taylor quickly interrupted. "Um, wow. Okay, what can I do? How can I help?"

"Can you come here?" Kaitlin asked in a small voice. "I don't know what I'm doing and I know you studied law, and… Can you just come help, please?"

Taylor sighed as she took a look at her surroundings. She'd been wandering aimlessly since she'd left her mother, too aware that she didn't want to leave the country, and too sad to admit that she had nowhere else to go.

"Where are you?" Taylor asked, trying to contain her joy at being needed.

"Berkeley. I'm staying with a friend while I get this figured out."

"Where? I can come find you."

"I'll meet you at the airport," Kaitlin slowly answered. "It's kind of hard to explain how to get here, especially when it's only the second time I've ever visited."

"Fine," Taylor sighed with a shake of her head. Kaitlin pregnant, married and lost... "I'll call you when I have my flight information."

"Thanks, Taylor."

"Hang in there," she offered. "I'll see you soon."

"Yeah."

Kaitlin smiled to herself as she hung up the phone. She rested her hands under her head as she stared up at the ceiling.

"So, are you really pregnant?" Colin suddenly asked her.

"You want to know what game we're really playing?"

Colin looked around sceptically before finally letting his gaze fall on Kaitlin and offering her a shrug. "Sure. Why not?"

Three hours later Taylor was on a plane to Berkeley, happy to have someone other than herself to think about, but unhappy at the prospect of the memories Kaitlin's situation would bring.

Across the country, Ryan came home to Colin and Kaitlin asleep, each in a separate bed. He wasn't surprised. He could remember Kirsten complaining on some nights that sleeping with Sandy was just too crowded when she was pregnant with Sophie.

He sat on his computer desk chair staring out into space and nursing his battered fists.

"Taylor," he whispered to himself. It would certainly serve as a distraction from his upcoming finals.


	6. Chapter 6: Time stands still

Nothing really to add but thanks for the reviews/comments, and enjoy this chapter. Though this chapter doesn't really help, I promise Seth and Summer will see each other soon, and Kaitlin's ploy will only become clearer.

**

* * *

**

Chapter 6: Time stands still

"Are you okay?" Kaitlin asked as she watched Ryan from his dorm room doorway.

"Sure. Why do you ask?"

"Because you kind of look like you're going to puke," Kaitlin told him as she moved to sit on his bed.

"Sorry. I was just reading Taylor's blog. It's…"

Kaitlin laughed and let herself fall back. "Yeah, I've read it. You know, I don't think she's done most of the recent things she's put on there. I think she just puts them there in the hopes that you'll read them and you'll get jealous and you'll go punch someone and then she'll know that you still love her."

"I doubt it. She's in the country. Taylor doesn't really do subtle. If she'd wanted to see me, she would have called me."

"Because you're so approachable?"

He rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"But she doesn't really have a choice, right?"

"Taylor always has a choice. She always finds a choice. And I'm fine with that. I'm fine with us being apart. I'm completely over Taylor. Seriously, I don't care. I was just… I don't need to read about—"

"Ryan," Kaitlin interrupted, moving her hand toward him to shut him up. "I meant she doesn't have a choice because she's the person who can help me the most in this situation."

"Oh, that. Yeah, that too." He watched her as she moved around on his bed to make herself comfortable. "So is that really why you came here? You remembered I helped Taylor with her divorce?

"Kinda." Kaitlin shrugged. "And because of Theresa's pregnancy. But I did mean all the big brother crap, too. I mean, I have Taylor's number, I could have called her, but I wanted you around. This marriage thing, it kind of makes me feel like I'm twelve or something, you know? I just want someone to—"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Ryan told her, shaking his head. "I didn't mean it that way. I just thought it would make sense if you had come to me because you remembered that I helped Taylor. Mind you, there will be no kissing or anything else to help you get out or over this marriage, got it?"

"Got it," Kaitlin agreed with a laugh.

"Do you want to talk about it, though? Colin's out picking up Taylor and I mean, Seth has me trained as a pretty good listener."

Kaitlin shrugged.

"I thought you were doing well with school and all that stuff. I thought you'd stopped being the wild child that came home from boarding school."

"I did, and I was. I know it was a mistake, Ryan, but you have to believe me that that's all it was."

Ryan nodded. "I believe you."

"You do?"

"Yes, Kaitlin. That's why you came here, isn't it? Because you knew I would believe you?"

"I guess that is one of the main reasons I came to you." Kaitlin nodded.

"And I'm going to help you out as well. Besides, it's been a while since I've felt the need to save someone, might be a nice throwback to my high school days."

Kaitlin laughed. "I promise I won't cause you nearly as much trouble as you had in high school."

"Good." Ryan leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead before getting off the bed. "All right. I'm going to go see if I can round us up a bit of food in case we get hungry later. Do you think you can behave while I'm gone or did you want to tag along?"

"I'll be good, and I'll stay here."

"Okay. Just…" He shuddered as he looked over at his computer. "Have that thing on a different Web site by the time I get back."

"Yes, sir." Kaitlin saluted with a laugh as she watched him leave the room.

Ryan smiled until he'd closed the door behind him. He leaned back against the wall and let his body slide to the floor.

He had only read three of Taylor's latest blog entries, and it was enough to depress him. Unfortunately, it had also made him curious and while Ryan had never been one to dwell on the past or to dig into people's personal lives, he couldn't help but scroll back to the archives and find a time when they had been together.

He only needed to spot the word baby once before he'd decided it had been a bad idea and quickly closed the browser window. He didn't want to remember another child that was almost his. He didn't want to remember the real reason Taylor had left and they had grown apart. He remembered why it was that he had never read Taylor's blog.

He wasn't ready. And suddenly, Kaitlin was making sure he had no choice.

* * *

Sandy winced when his shoe fell to the floor with a loud bang. He looked up quickly at the bed, and felt his eyes widen in surprise when he found Kirsten sitting there, her legs crossed under her body, her arms crossed over her chest and her bottom lip sticking out.

"Busted?" he asked carefully.

"Not you."

"Well, that's good." He tugged at his tie until he could slip it over his head, and unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt. "Who are you mad at?"

"Julie," Kirsten huffed as she reached for her husband.

Sandy slid on the bed and moved toward her, smiling when Kirsten's hands were finally able to make contact, and she started undressing him.

"What has she done this time?"

"I don't know."

"What does that mean?"

Kirsten sighed loudly as she pushed Sandy's shirt away from his body. "It means that she's hiding something from me, and I have no idea how to find out what it is. And it means that she's been hearing from Frank more than I've been hearing from you since she's gotten here. And it means that—"

"Are you pouting?" Sandy asked with a chuckle.

"No," Kirsten answered, her bottom lip sticking out further with the word.

"I don't think I've ever seen you pout."

She narrowed her eyes.

"All right, I don't think I've seen you pout since I got the rich girl out of you and got you to live in the back of a mail truck with me."

"I'm not pouting."

Sandy smiled and crawled closer to her, pushing her down on the bed so he could hover over her body.

"I'm sorry if I've been away a lot lately, but I swear that it's only because of this side thing I'm working on and that it will all be over soon."

"And you're sure that you can't tell me what this side thing is?"

"Not yet," he told her with a shake of the head. "I really wish I could, sweetie, but until all this is settled, I can't talk about it with anyone. Client confidentiality and all."

"And you promise it's not something that I'm going to get mad about?"

"Do I every do anything that you get mad about?"

"Well, there was Rebecca and that girl who got you to work for that firm and—"

"That's Newport Sandy," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. "Berkeley Sandy is very different from Newport Sandy. Berkeley Sandy can do no wrong."

"Oh, I beg to—"

He cut her off with his lips firmly pressed against hers before she could say anything more. His hands lingered under her silky nightgown and rested against her thighs as he pressed his body over hers.

"I suppose Berkeley Sandy isn't that bad," Kirsten conceded when they finally separated for air.

"I'm glad you think so, because I have something to tell you."

"Sandy…" she warned as she heard the doubt in his voice.

"I have to leave town for a few days."

"What? No. I—"

He interrupted her again with his lips, pressing his forehead against hers once he'd gotten her to stop talking.

"I'm sorry, but I do. Trust me. This is something you would want me to do."

"Sandy, I already feel like you're never here, and now you really aren't going to be here."

"You've got Julie," he told her with a shrug.

"I don't want Julie; I want you."

"I know," he whispered as he shifted onto his side, pulling her along with him. "And I want to be there for you, but you just have to trust me a little longer. Just trust me with this one trip, and then I promise you that everything will be fine and revealed and you'll want to thank me and make love to me forever."

"Promise?" she asked, unable to keep a small smile from playing on her lips.

"Promise," he told her with a determined nod.

"Well. Julie and Sophie are at the movies—"

"It's like, past ten, Kirsten."

"And," she said, pushing him lightly until he moved to lie on his back, "that means that it's just the two of us."

"You're letting our daughter go out with— Oh!" Sandy suddenly said, his eyes wide as he felt his wife's hands reach for the waist of his pants. "You think they'll be gone for a while?"

"A long while," Kirsten told him with a raised eyebrow as she moved down to press her lips against his.

* * *

"Where's your boyfriend?"

Summer raised her head from where she'd been searching her papers, and looked around the room as though there was a chance she would find Seth there. Of course he wasn't. Who knew where Seth was.

She shrugged. "I think he's in New York or something."

"No he's not."

"What?"

"I saw him earlier?"

Again, Summer's eyes traveled around the room. "Who exactly do you think my boyfriend is?"

"See, that's a tricky question," Shawn answered as he sat next to her on the couch she'd taken over. "Because at first I thought it was Matthew because you guys looked like you were macking yesterday when Jess and I fell on you in the lobby. But then some other guy showed up and said he was your boyfriend despite the fact that I was trying to explain this make-out session. So, I'm really not sure."

"I'm not dating Matthew. I was definitely not making out with him."

"Oh. Well, what about the guy I told you'd been making out with Matthew?"

"What… Tall, gangly, curly hair, mumbles incessantly?"

Shawn smiled. "Yeah."

"Seth? You told Seth that I had been making out with Matthew?" Summer rose from her seat quickly, dropping papers all over the ground in the movement.

"I guess." Shawn shrugged.

"You don't say something like that to Seth! He's going to believe you. He's going to panic. He's going to call Ryan and chew his ear off. Ryan is going to kill you."

"Are you dating Ryan?"

"Seth, I'm dating… Where did he go?"

"I'm not sure…"

"I'm… Just… You…" Summer's face scrunched and she balled her fists as she tried to figure out what exactly it was she was trying to say. "You're lucky I have to go find Seth and don't have time for a rage blackout."

"A what?"

"Eh," she finally grunted before spinning on her heels and hurrying off to find Seth wherever he could possibly be. Summer rolled her eyes when the first person she ran into was Matthew.

"I blame you," she told him, pointing a finger in his face as she passed by him, rushing toward the elevators.

"What have I done now?"

"You just… eh… I don't have time for words." She pushed at the down button continuously, knowing that it was useless, but needing something to do with her hands.

"If you're angry that you missed your chance with me, it's too late, Summer. You were a bitch about it, and now you aren't getting another shot. I've already got another date lined up for the most expensive restaurant in this town."

"The only shot I want is one at your head with a bullet. Nothing else would make me as happy as that would."

Matthew shook his head with a content smirk on his face, though Summer did notice that he took a step back with the movement. "Shouldn't you be working on something right now? You do have something to work on, don't you?"

"I'll get to it later."

"Later isn't—"

"Understand this," Summer yelled, ignorant to the fact that there were dozens of heads turning in their direction to listen to the fight and be ready with the latest gossip. "I don't want you. I don't want to date you. I don't want to sleep with you. I don't want our bodies to contact in any way whatsoever. Stay away from me."

She offered one last huff and entered the elevator that had finally arrived. She shot Matthew another glare before the doors closed and she was finally lowered a floor to find herself that much closer to her destination.

* * *

"Summer?" Taylor asked as she answered her cell phone. "What is this? The day of random phone calls?" She muttered as she slouched down in her seat.

"Where's Seth?" Summer asked, her voice rushed and high.

"Why would I know where Seth is? Why don't you just call his cell phone?"

"He forgot it in New York," Summer answered. "Dumbass Che has it and now Seth's here and some idiot told him that I was dating someone here, which I'm not and now I don't know where he is."

"Maybe he's just walking to clear his head, and he'll show up at any moment."

"Don't patronize me, Taylor."

"I'm not trying to patronize you, I'm serious. Maybe that's what Seth's doing."

Taylor sighed as she let her eyes wander around her. She should have known better than to expect Kaitlin to be punctual. Damn her for not lying and saying her plane would arrive a few hours earlier than it actually did.

Taylor shook her head as she realised Summer was still babbling on her end of the line.

"I don't know, Summer. I don't know anything. All I know is that Kaitlin called me needing help, and now I'm in Berkeley waiting for her so we can go to her friend's house."

"Berkeley?" Summer asked, suddenly forgetting her own problem. "Kaitlin doesn't know anyone in Berkeley except the Cohens and…"

"And?" Taylor asked in a high, panicked voice.

"She wouldn't."

"It's Kaitlin," Taylor growled.

"Yeah, you're probably on your way to see Ryan. How do you feel about that?"

"I'm going to kill her and this guy that's looking at me all creepy… Hello? Can I help you?"

"Taylor?" the man asked as he approached her.

"Sure?" she replied.

"I'm Colin. I'm Kaitlin's… husband?"

"Aw, the joy of newlyweds." She shook her head as she turned her attention back to her cellphone. "Summer, my ride is here. Is there anything I can actually help you with before I'm off to a fate worse than death?"

"I guess not. Just let me know if you hear from Seth."

"Will do, good luck."

"You too."

Taylor bit her lip as she closed her phone.

"Are we going to see Ryan?"

Colin smiled. "You know Kaitlin's friend?"

She sighed as she moved passed him. "I may need some alcohol. Lots of it."

* * *

It wasn't the most romantic place in the world, Seth thought to himself as he moved along the hallway. In fact, it might give a lot of towns a run for the least romantic.

He couldn't, Seth decided, propose to Summer in such an unromantic town. He tried desperately to quiet the Ryan voice inside his head that was telling him he was simply finding yet another way to procrastinate.

"You came back."

"Yeah," Seth answered with barely a glance in the man's direction.

"I'm really sorry about earlier. I talked to Summer and she explained about how you are her boyfriend and that she and Matthew were not making out and how I told you I thought they were and—"

"You told Summer I was here?" Seth asked, his voice high and squeaking.

"Yeah."

"How did she seem?"

"She was angry," Shawn answered with wide eyes and determined nods of his head. "Yeah. She was really angry. She almost killed Matthew."

"And she's where now?"

"Looking for you, I think." Shawn shrugged and looked over at Jessica who had been standing beside him without saying a word. "She's walking around the city."

"Good," Seth said, pointing a finger in their direction. "Good. She's walking it off. Maybe kick a few strangers that whistle at her… This is good. She's not kicking me."

"It's like foreplay?" Shawn asked.

"No, Summer doesn't—" Seth shook his head before he revealed too much about his girlfriend. "Listen, is there anywhere I can wait for her?"

"Why don't you just call her?" Jessica asked, finally joining the conversation.

"Call Summer when she's mad at me? I'd like to live please. I'll just wait until she comes back, thank you very much."

"Well, luckily, I'm in charge of accommodations. Come on, let me get you an extra key to her room."

Seth sighed as he and Shawn fell behind Jessica.

"I know this town isn't big on the romance, but how is it with forgiveness?"


	7. Chapter 7: Lovely encounters

Thanks so much for all the feedback and reviews. Here, finally, are Seth and Summer in the same room together, as well as moving everyone else's story forward.

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Chapter 7: Lovely encounters

"Hey." Summer all but dropped her phone when she walked through the door to her room and found Seth sitting on her bed. "I'm not cheating on you."

Seth smiled. "I know. But it's always nice to hear."

Summer nodded, but didn't move from her spot in front of the door. Finally, Seth held out his arms to her and she let out a sigh of relief as she rushed to him.

"Don't freak out."

"I'm not freaked out."

"Why not?" she asked, her voice muffled against his chest.

"Because I never believed that kid when he said you were making out with someone else. It never even crossed my mind that he might be right." He kissed her nose as he pushed some hair behind her ear. "I think we actually might be in, like, a mature relationship now."

"Wow. That's big."

"Scary?"

She smiled up at him with a wide grin. "No."

"I didn't think so either. When it didn't look like your meeting was going to end anytime soon, I went around looking for whoever I figured had been macking on you so I could defend your honour, but I couldn't find anyone who seemed to have taken a recent beating. Fast runner?"

"Just not worth it. With all the stuff I have to get done before I'm out of here, I don't have time to beat people up. I just swatted him away like the fly he is and kept doing my work."

"Do you want me to take the time to bring in a beating?"

Summer smiled and shifted so she was sitting in his lap. "You don't have time for that either. You disappeared and had me worried, and now you're dealing with a very stressed and frantic girlfriend. You're going to spend every second you're here making it up to me."

"So you're telling me my magic hands are needed?"

"Um… among other magic body parts." She moved into him so their lips could meet. They held on to each other as they kissed, unable to find any way to get close enough though their bodies were flush together. Eventually, Summer pulled away and looked up at him with wide, tearful eyes.

"Where were you?"

"New York."

"For work?" she asked, letting her head drop onto his shoulder.

"No. I went out there to see your dad."

Just as quickly as she'd let herself rest against him, she sprung up in surprise. "My father?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"I wanted to ask him for his blessing before I asked you to marry me."

"Oh." Summer answered with a quiet nod. Suddenly, she realised what he said. "What?"

Seth grinned. "I know, I'm the big gesture guy and this is about as small as you can get for an event that's as big as they get, but, well… first of all I haven't done anything wrong this time, and well I just want you to say yes. I don't care where we are, or what we're doing, or whether you're surprised or not. I just want to marry you, Summer." He reached into his pocket and took out a small velvet box which he opened for her.

Summer gasped at the sight. Her mouth opened and closed a few times. She took a few deep breaths. Finally, her eyes moved up to meet Seth's and it was only after a few moments of seeing the fear in his eyes that she realised she hadn't given him an answer yet.

"Yes. Yes. God, yes. Of course I'll marry you."

"Thank Moses and Jesus," Seth whispered as he took the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger. He smiled as she leaned in for their lips to meet once again.

Summer looked down at her hand once they finally broke apart.

"This is a really nice ring."

Seth laughed. "We can exchange it and get you what you really want."

"I love you so much."

* * *

"It's a door, Ryan," Kailtin finally told him.

"Huh?"

"It's a door."

"What?" he asked, looking over at her.

"That thing you've been staring at for the past hour is called a door. Mystery solved. You can move on with your life now."

"I'm sorry Kaitlin, it's just that…"

"It's Taylor," Kaitlin agreed with a nod. "And you never got over her and she never got over you, and so there will be nothing but tense, unspoken drama when the two of you meet again. I understand Ryan, and believe me, I really appreciate everything you're doing for me."

"It's nothing, Kaitlin. Taylor and I are over. We've both dealt with that."

"Of course you have," she answered with a roll of her eyes. "That's why you aren't sitting here dreading the moment she's going to knock on that door."

"I'm not—" He froze as the sound came. He had said it a long time ago, and he would say it again: the girl had timing.

Kaitlin smiled as she watched him.

"Answer the door," she finally whispered.

"Right," Ryan said as he rose from his seat on the bed.

He swung open the door, and there she was. His heart stopped. She hadn't changed at all. She was still the girl who had visited him in his dreams so many night.

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hey."

They stared at each other, eyes batting away every time their gazes met.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Oh, right." Ryan hurried to move out of her way, holding his arm out as though she wouldn't be able to find his room without his direction. "Come on in."

"Kaitlin," Taylor called as she ran toward the girl. "What kind of trouble have you landed yourself into now?"

"Nothing you can't handle, right?" the girl asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure. Explain to me what exactly it is you've gotten yourself into."

Kaitlin's eyes wandered up to Ryan, looking for help. He shrugged his shoulders, too busy watching Taylor to have any advice to offer.

"Fine, but not here, okay? I'm totally craving dumplings right now. We can talk over supper."

She hurried past Taylor and out of the room, grabbing Colin's hand as she sped along. Taylor and Ryan watched her leave.

"I didn't think cravings would start this early," Taylor said as she grabbed her purse.

"Are you kidding me? Remember—"

"No, I don't, Ryan," Taylor answered quickly. "I'm working on living in the present, so the past is something that I don't really discuss anymore."

She threw her hair behind her shoulder and rushed after Kaitlin.

"Wonderful," Ryan muttered to himself before grabbing his wallet and keys and rushing after them.

* * *

"Where is she?" Frank asked with a tired sigh.

Sandy's eyes widened at the sight, and he threw the front door open so the man could come in to his house.

"Julie? I think she went shopping with Kirsten and Sophie. I thought you were camping with Kevin this week."

"What? No, not Julie. Julie's still here? She said she'd left to visit her sister."

"Huh," Sandy said. "Coffee?"

Frank nodded and followed the man further in the house, dropping his duffle bag along the way.

"So you're looking for Kaitlin."

"Yeah. I don't know what she's up to, but she's disappeared with the engagement ring I bought for Julie."

"Whoa. I could see how that would worry you."

"Yeah," Frank sighed. "I don't know what she's up to. I thought the kid was warming up to me. I asked her if she would help me ask her mother to marry me, and then next thing I know I'm down an engagement ring and a potential step-daughter."

Sandy couldn't help but chuckle. "She didn't say anything to you that would make you think she didn't like the idea of a wedding?"

"No. She seemed happy that I was going to ask her mother to marry me. She's definitely accepted at this point that the Bullit is a friend of the family but won't ever date her mother again. She said something about how I'd _almost_ earned the right to ask her mother for her hand, but I thought she was kidding."

"It's Kaitlin." Sandy shrugged as he handed Frank a mug of coffee. "Apparently she decided you had to pass one last test before you could have her mother."

Frank sighed again. "I have a feeling I'm failing."

"Well why did you think she was here?"

"Um, she said she wanted to spend the break with family. There's no way she meant Julie's because she hates Julie's family, and Jimmy's in Hawaii with some big deal this week. Kaitlin's going to see him in three weeks."

Sandy's brow furrowed as he thought about it. He'd heard Kaitlin's name lately, he swore he had. And it hadn't just been because Julie was around…

"Ryan!" he finally called out.

"What?" Frank asked.

"Ryan. She's with Ryan. Kirsten said something about Ryan and Kaitlin fixing something."

"My own son," Frank said, shaking his head. "Great. They better not pawn that ring."

"Nah, they wouldn't do that. Kaitlin could have pawned that ring in Newport if that's what she really wanted."

Frank narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Sandy looked down at his coffee and frowned.

"You know what? I have been surrounded by women and womanly things for almost a week now. What do you say to a beer, the grill and a game?"

"Now?"

"You can call Ryan while I set up."

Frank looked around the room, then finally sighed and shrugged. "Why not?"

* * *

"Are you ever going to tell me what's on your mind, Julie?"

"What do you mean, Kirsten?" Julie asked her friend, trying to keep the fake smile on her face despite the effort it requires on her part.

"You show up out of the blue, you pretend to show interest in our lives, you barely eat in the morning, you're picky about anything on your plate, you haven't had a drop to drink, you're distracted… There's obviously something on your mind. Why can't you just tell me what the problem is?"

"It's not what's on my mind that's stopping me. It's what's on something else."

"Julie, you're not…" Kirsten's face froze as she manoeuvred the car around a bend. "You're not eating in the morning, you're picky about the food you do eat, you haven't touched a drop of alcohol… Julie, are you pregnant?"

"Now, when you say pregnant, do you mean—"

"You're pregnant."

"I'm pregnant and I had a pregnancy test in my purse to show you and it's missing and Kaitlin must have taken it because she disappeared along with it and Frank's not acting cagey enough for a baby to be the problem and he's going to leave me!" Julie yelled suddenly in one breath.

"Frank left you?"

"Is leaving," Julie corrected. "I can feel it coming. He's becoming distant. He's hiding things from me. He's nervous when I walk into a room."

Kirsten rolled her eyes as the car came to a stop. She opened the door on her side before Julie could get any more of her insecurities out. The women grabbed their bags from their morning of shopping and headed toward the house.

"He's not talking to me. He's decided we shouldn't go on a vacation in a couple of weeks," Julie continued as she walked around the living room. "He's making good money now. He's bored that I'm paying more attention to my schoolwork. He's—"

"Here," Kirsten interrupted before Julie could enter the kitchen and be heard by the men who were barbecuing on the back porch.

"What is he doing here?"

"Well," Kirsten said with a shrug. "I don't think he's breaking up with you."


	8. Chapter 8: Reunited

Thanks again for all the comments and reviews. I'm happy people are enjoying. I really have nothing else to add, so to the chapter.

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****Chapter 8: Reunited**

"We should get engaged all the time," Summer panted to Seth as she tried to fix the sheets around her.

"Are you kidding me? I stressed over this for weeks, I annoyed Ryan to the point where he was about to kill me, and I had lunch with your father. I don't think I can afford to get engaged all the time."

"Fine. I'll ask you to marry me next time, as long as we get a bit of whatever that was that just happened here, I'm happy."

"Yeah," Seth agreed as he moved lower on the bed so his head would be at the same level as Summer's and they could look at each other eye to eye. "But that wasn't just engagement sex. That was engagement, reunion, forgive me, and make-up sex all in one. Plus, it was just long overdue."

"It doesn't matter what it was. I'm engaged and you're not lost anymore." She reached out and smacked him on the arm that lay over the sheets. "Never disappear like that again, by the way. What the hell were you doing losing your cell phone?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that Che took it from me so I wouldn't run away from him?"

"No."

"Why not?" Seth pouted.

"Because Che said you forgot it there and he's proved more trustworthy than you."

"The guy who got you kicked out of Brown is more trustworthy than I am?"

Summer shrugged. "He didn't lie about getting me kicked out of Brown… Your truth record is a lot worse off than his."

"But you're engaged to me. You have to take my side in all fights now."

"I don't think so. You lost your phone. You've been acting like a dumbass because you were nervous about this engagement. And Superman is better than Batman."

"I did… Whoa, what? Superman is not better than Batman."

"Of course he is," Summer insisted, biting the inside of her cheek to keep away her smile. She'd had this argument with Seth many times, mostly when she was too mad at him not too annoy him, and too hurried to find anything she actually felt passionate about to use as an argument.

Seth sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Superman is the worst of—"

Summer pressed her lips against his to cut him off before he could get much further into an argument she was sure would last much longer than she could stand.

"Doesn't matter," she told him, pulling herself against his body and letting her hands roam against his skin under the sheets. "I've always been partial to Spiderman myself."

"Spiderman? He's—"

"Spiderman in the rain, to be more specific." Summer's eyebrow rose, daring Seth to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Well that," he shrugged, "I can't argue with."

Summer smiled victoriously, but only for a moment as Seth moved to be over her and wiped away her expression with his lips.

He groaned when they were interrupted by the chime of a cell phone.

"Do you have to get it?" he whined when he realised it wasn't his.

Summer sighed. "It's Taylor."

"Uh, don't answer. She'll never shut up."

"She's going to Berkeley and I think Kaitlin is forcing her to see Ryan. She's a mess."

Seth scratched his cheek as he looked down at his watch. "She must be there already. She's seen him by this time. She's just freaking out. Let her. Maybe it'll do them some good to have to deal with one another."

"You just don't want me to pay attention to anyone but you."

"That's absolutely correct," Seth agreed with a nod. He grabbed Summer's phone and threw it onto a chair across the room. It stopped ringing.

"Must have gone to voicemail," he shrugged. "What a shame."

"Yeah, what a—" Summer didn't get much further before Seth's lips were keeping her quiet once again.

* * *

"Well," Sandy sighed as he brought his bottle of beer to his lips for another swig, "all I know is that Kirsten is not going to be happy when she finds out. So, if it makes you feel better, I'll be in even more trouble than you are for whatever it is that you did."

"But I don't even know what I did," Frank answered with a shake of his head. "I don't even think I did anything."

"Doesn't matter, Kirsten will be madder."

"Daddy!"

Sandy cringed at the sound of his daughter's voice. He loved his daughter and he was nothing but happy that she was bouncing into the living room toward him, but a bouncing Sophie with arms full of something he couldn't quite make out meant a nearby Kirsten, and Sandy could only hope that she hadn't heard his last words.

"Look what I made," Sophie told him proudly.

"I see." Sandy dropped a kiss on her head as he got up from the couch. He looked at the cardboard in her hand, unable to tell what it was she had made despite the fact that it was only a few inches from him. "Did you leave any paint in the pots for the other little girls at the birthday party to use?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Who's that?"

"That's Frank," Sandy said. "You remember Frank, right? He's Ryan's father."

"Other father," Sophie corrected without a thought, having heard Ryan's protest each time Sandy talked about Frank. "Hi, Uncle Frank."

"Hi, Sophie. Don't you look pretty."

"Yes, I do," Sophie agreed. "Did you come to take Aunt Julie away?"

"I'm sorry?"

Sandy reached out with one hand to cover Sophie's mouth as he gently pushed her away. "Why don't you go put that away and then come back down for supper? I'm sure you're mom must have picked something up on the way."

"Thai," Sophie called, already making her way out of the room.

"Children are precious, aren't they?"

Frank laughed as he shook his head. "Julie doesn't always have the greatest way with children. She's good with Kevin, but her and girls… Don't worry. I'm well aware. Besides, the way she looked when they stalked out of here to pick up Sophie… I think that would have scared me if I had been on the receiving end. And I've seen her first thing in the morning."

They settled back into the quiet they had found before Sophie's arrival. Sandy almost worried about how much stuff the women had actually purchased if it was taking them so long to gather everything to bring into the house, but more worried that his wife was avoiding him because of something she had overheard.

Finally, their patience was rewarded as they heard the women shuffling toward them.

"Sandy, we brought supper," Kirsten called to him, her voice icy enough that Sandy knew she'd overheard.

"Great, baby."

"Um…" Kirsten's eyes wandered as she watched first Sandy than Frank. She nodded her head toward the kitchen. "Julie's in there if you want to see her."

"I guess… Maybe she knows where Kaitlin went."

Sandy smiled a wide grin as he watched Frank leave the room.

"Frank's here," he offered his wife.

"I saw that when I walked in earlier and you were grilling yourselves some lunch." She shook her head as he approached. "Sandy, what did you do?"

Sandy shrugged. "Nothing. He just showed up. I didn't call him or anything."

"I know you know I heard," Kirsten said as she moved toward him. "Why am I going to be mad at you?"

"Not for anything that awful and not for anything that you won't quickly forgive."

"But I'll be mad first, so why don't you tell me about that?"

"Can you just please trust me when I say that it would be best if we waited until we were alone?"

"Sandy…" Kirsten warned, her hands moving away from his when he reached for her.

"I—"

"Frank!" they heard Julie scream from the kitchen.

Kirsten narrowed her eyes. "You should be thanking God for Julie. That's all I'm going to say."

She left the room in quick, angry steps. Sandy let his eyes roll up to the sky and contemplated what Kirsten had just said. Finally, he shook his head and decided to go watch the action in the kitchen rather than acknowledge Julie's help in any way.

* * *

"So where were you before this?" Kaitlin asked after a meal where Ryan and Taylor had spent most of the time averting their eyes from one another rather than have to engage in any real conversation. Colin hadn't been much more helpful, trying unsuccessfully to steer the conversation with questions about their past together, seemingly finding one landmine to hit after another.

"Baby shower for my cousin," Taylor answered. Her eyes lifted at the same time as Ryan. They both turned away before their gazes could hold one another.

"I didn't know you were leaving France," Ryan said, offering his first words of the evening.

Taylor's eyes fluttered up to him with something resembling hope, but quickly hardened when she didn't meet Ryan's, his eyes on his food rather than on her. "I just came down for this. I don't know if I'm going to stay yet."

"I'd be shocked if you did," Ryan muttered in his food.

Kaitlin sighed and slumped in her seat. This wasn't exactly the conversation she had been trying to start.

"Well, I don't know what I would do here. I don't even know what Seth and Summer are going to be doing, so I can't really plan around them."

"I didn't think you planned _around_ people," Ryan shrugged.

"Well, I certainly don't plan around needing people or people needing me. I grew out of falling in love with the first person that came to my rescue. People can grow up, you know. Unlike you, I see. You're still rushing out to help every damsel in distress you can find."

"Okay, I am not in distress," Kaitlin protested, picking up her purse and plunging her hand inside.

"I haven't felt the need to save anyone in a long time, thank you very much. Kaitlin came to me looking for help, and I told her I would always be a brother to her, so I was more than willing to help my family."

Taylor said nothing, but let her eyes drop to her plate. Ryan instantly felt bad at the lonely look on her face he had seen too many times.

"I'm just gonna go. We're," Kaitlin corrected, grabbing Colin's hand and throwing money on the table before either Ryan or Taylor could protest, "just going to go. I have some friends around. We'll be back late."

She was gone with Colin before they could protest. Ryan and Taylor said nothing and let their eyes meet for a moment. Finally, they both went back to their food.

"I'm sorry," Ryan eventually told her.

Taylor cleared her throat before she tried to speak. "About what?"

"I didn't mean it the way it sounded. The family thing… I know that you—"

"That I what?" Taylor challenged, her back straightening and her chin lifting at the question. "That I don't get along with my family the way you do with the Cohens? That while you can just find yourself a surrogate family, I have to keep trying to get along with my biological one despite the fact that everyone knows my mother is the queen bitch and really isn't worth trying to get along with? Any of those things, Ryan?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what I was trying to say."

"Oh." Taylor shook her head quickly. "Well, don't you worry. Everything's fine. In fact, I just saw my mother a few days ago. I went to my cousin's baby shower—because she asked me to—and I saw a lot of family. I have family that loves me."

"Sure."

"And they were all happy to see. My mother was very happy I was there."

Ryan waved his fork in her direction, smiling at the news. "That's great, Taylor."

"She was happy because she was trying to set me up with some pathetic, disgusting man because she thinks that's the only kind of person that would ever love me, but she was happy to see me all the same."

"Oh, I—"

"I think we talked for almost two minutes, so that in itself is wonderful, isn't it?"

"If you—"

"And I mean, it's not like she really ever abandoned me, I'm the one that left, so really my family is fantastic and I don't see where you have any right at all to feel sorry for me when—"

"Taylor," Ryan finally interrupted, his voice raising. He looked around the restaurant quickly, blushing at the number of people who had turned at the sound of his outburst. "Taylor, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean anything by it."

"I'm sure you didn't."

"I'm sorry your mother was a bitch."

She laughed, bringing a small smile to Ryan's face. "I'm sorry as well, but I guess we can't be blamed for that since she was a bitch way before either of us came into this world."

Ryan reached over and patted her hand, holding on to it longer than he had to. "I'm glad you're taking it well."

"Well, I'm used to it by now. Besides, like I said, I've gotten over the whole hero thing and decided I can take care of myself."

"And, I've gotten over my whole hero thing and am happy—as your friend—that you have moved on from letting your mother ruin your life."

"So, I guess we've done really well for ourselves."

Ryan shrugged. "I guess we have."

Taylor took a deep breath and squeezed his hand which was still holding hers. Ryan glanced down at their joined palms and then back up at her. She licked her lips. He tried to clear his throat with what came out as a low growl. They both looked up at once.

"Check, please."


	9. Chapter 9: The morning after

Hello again. Thanks for all the reviews and comments. This chapter is still a little ambiguous about what is going on with Sandy, but it will get clearer in coming chapters.

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Chapter 9: The morning after

"But I don't want you to go," Summer whined, her head leaning against the doorframe and her hand holding on to Seth's as though he wouldn't be able to escape her grip.

He smiled at her and leaned in to land a lasting kiss on her forehead.

"But I have to go. As much as I like to say that my job is flexible and allows me to travel, I have to be there some of the time, and from the sound of my boss on the phone yesterday when we were talking about my latest drawings, this is one of those times. If I make my flight, I can actually put some time in at the office today."

"I don't care. Quit and stay here with me."

"I'm not going to be able to replace that ring with the one you want if I quit."

"So I'll get my father to buy me the ring I want." She rested her head against his chest, her forehead plastered to his shirt and her eyes staring down at their shoes. She wrapped her arms around him. "At least take me with you."

"You know you don't really want that. You don't want to be the girl that went this far and gave up just a few weeks before she was really done. Besides, these people rely on you. What are they going to do if you just disappear?"

"I don't care."

Seth chuckled as he pushed her hair behind her shoulders and lifted her face up so he could look at her. "You do care. You're just tired now. But I'm going straight home and you have my new cell phone number, so you'll know exactly where I'll be. You've got a calendar with a countdown of how many days you have left. And you have a ton of decisions to make about this wedding of ours."

"What decisions?" Summer asked with a laugh. "I've known what my marriage is going to look like for years now."

"Aw, you've thought we were going to get married for years now?"

"Who's talking about you? I knew what my marriage would look like way before I met you, Cohen."

"Hey," he reached out and bumped her nose with his finger. "You watch how you use that name. It's going to be tacked on to yours one day."

"One day soon," Summer told him, up on her toes.

"One day soon," he agreed.

She sighed and stayed perched on her toes so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

"You didn't stay long enough."

"I know. I wish I could have been here longer, but there was so much going on."

"And you were being a chicken."

"And I was being a chicken." He nodded.

She smiled up at him, a tight, sad smile.

"I'm going to miss you," she finally told him.

"You're all right though, right, Summer? I mean, you're doing fine here? You're just stressing about everything that's going on."

"Yeah. It's just a lot."

His eyes travelled her face and he tried not to break at the unshed tears he could see in her eyes.

"If you're really asking me to stay, I will."

"You have to get back to your job," Summer told him, shaking her head.

"If you're really asking me to stay, I will," Seth repeated.

Summer smiled her first genuine smile since Seth had told her he had to leave that morning. And her day had started off so well; waking up next to Seth, sharing a shower, fighting over which clothes he should wear for the day…

"You have to go. And I have to let you go and do this on my own. It'll take a month longer for me to get ready to leave if you're here distracting me."

"Me? A distraction?"

Summer laughed at him before reaching up for a quick kiss.

"Go away now. I'll see you at the graduation party in a few."

"That you will. And then I'll see you every morning for a long, long time after."

"Good." She gave him another kiss and smiled, finally looking around the hall when she noticed a few GEORGE members squeeze by Seth to make their way to the elevators. She had forgotten they were in the hallway, in public, where anyone could see them. She tightened the bathrobe that surrounded her body. "So go. Call me when you land."

"All right." Seth was the one to lean in for a kiss that time. "The next time I see you, I'll have that ring of yours."

"In gold," Summer called after him, swatting his butt as he turned his back to her. She ducked back into the room quickly, not wanting to see him walk away or prolong her sadness by watching him wait for an elevator.

Seth shook his head as he left her.

"Hey, man." He nodded at one of the GEORGE guys standing outside his room. He'd met the guy before during one of his visits, but he'd met so many that they were too hard to keep straight and he simply resigned to calling them man or dude during his visits.

"Visiting the missus, where you Sean?"

"Yeah." He paused and bobbed his head a few times. "Did you call me Sean?"

"Isn't that your name?"

"My name's Seth."

"Oh," the guy shrugged. "Sorry. Summer doesn't really talk about her boyfriend all that much, so you could understand how I would get the name wrong."

"I sure would, Paul," Seth answered, hoping he was right in remembering that Summer had never introduced him to a Paul.

"It's Matthew."

"Right," Seth nodded. "Yeah, Summer really doesn't talk about anyone else all that much when we're together. She says my name a lot. Loudly. Kind of screaming it. Or she calls to God sometimes. You know what I mean." He offered Matthew a wink.

"Yeah, I get the picture." Matthew nodded quickly, his eyes narrowing.

"Well, I have to get back to my job now. But I'll see you around. It was nice seeing you again."

"You too," Matthew called after Seth. He watched as the guest pressed the button to call the elevator, then sent a glance in the direction of Summer's room. He growled as he let himself back into his room and slammed the door behind him.

* * *

Taylor quickly averted her eyes when she saw Ryan start to stir. Sleeping with Ryan Atwood was one thing. It was one thing that she had done many times before and one thing that she could justify since she could barely remember the last time she had slept with anyone, much less slept with someone and enjoyed it. Staring at Ryan while he slept after a night together, that was something else.

Sure, she had done that as well in the past, but Taylor knew well enough that that was just one more of the things that she did that wasn't necessarily considered "normal." She thought Ryan would probably understand—he usually did, or he at least pretended he did to make her feel better—but she still didn't want him to catch her doing it.

She was only able to turn her eyes away for a few moments, however, before she had to look over at him. Just to see… Perhaps he was looking at her as well.

And he was. Except from the big grin on his face, Taylor wasn't sure that she was going to like the reason why he was staring at her.

"You were watching me sleep again," he told her.

"What?"

"You were watching me sleep again. I know you were, Taylor. Don't deny it."

"I didn't deny it." She shook her head. "What makes you think I was staring at you anyway?"

"It woke me up," he answered, rubbing a hand over his face and then reaching over to the night table for his watch.

"I didn't realise my stare was so loud," Taylor huffed.

Ryan laughed as he sat up and looked around the room for his underwear. "It isn't loud. I guess I'm just not used to someone other than Seth watching me while I sleep."

"What?"

"Seth gets up really early, and for some reason he has a key to my dorm room. At least he usually brings coffee now."

Taylor nodded, then changed her mind and offered a few quick shakes of the head. "No, that's weird."

"Taylor, I don't think you're in any position to call Seth weird."

"What does that mean?"

Ryan shrugged. "It just… It means nothing. Just leave Seth alone."

He had to bite back the sigh of relief from his lips when his cell phone rang. He found it in the back pocket of his discarded jeans.

"Speaking of… What? This isn't Seth's number." He offered Taylor a confused look and brought the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

Taylor watched carefully, trying to guess who was on the other end of the line from Ryan's part of the conversation.

"Oh, no, sorry man, I forgot that you lost your cell phone. It's Seth," he offered Taylor with a hand over the phone.

"I didn't ask." She shrugged.

"Give me a minute." Ryan put on some boxers and left the room, leaning against the door that he hoped would block most of the conversation from Taylor's ears. Thinking twice, he moved toward one end of the hall, all too aware that Taylor could very possibly be leaning against the door, listening to his end of the conversation. "So what's up?"

"Well, I have to head back to work because Sam said there's absolutely no covering for me anymore. I was wondering if you wanted to do dinner tonight. I could tell you about my adventure with Summer, you could tell me about how much fun it is to study for exams."

"Yeah, sounds great, buddy, but I don't know if that's going to be good for me."

"Since when do you have a life?"

Ryan sighed loudly. "Since Taylor's naked in my bed right now."

"You're still in— Hey. I think your story might be better than mine. Well, maybe not better, but more eventful anyway. Are you guys back together now?"

"No, I mean, maybe… I don't know. She's just here to help out with the Kaitlin situation and we should have known better than to let our hands touch."

"I still thought Kaitlin was over the teen drama stuff. I can't keep these Coopers straight. More importantly, hand touching, huh?"

"Long story."

"So short version."

"I'm not sure even I understand it at this point."

"That sounds very promising."

Ryan sighed as he sat with his back leaning against the door and dropped his head in his hands. "I know, but… it's Taylor, right? I mean, she's the queen of experimenting and just having fun in a relationship, right?"

Seth took a deep breath on his end of the line and paused. "No. No. Taylor was convinced that high school and college were times for experimenting, and she was all for that. But she isn't in college anymore, and soon you won't be either, so you won't have that going for you."

"Why did Kaitlin have to get married?"

"Hey, don't blame the kid. There hadn't been any drama in your life for a while now. It's about time something came along to bring the old kid Chino into action. Have you punched anyone yet?"

"Punched anyone? Who would I punch? This Colin kid keeps talking to me about anger management techniques. He'd drop if I blew in his direction, and I haven't seen any guys around Taylor, so that's out as well."

"All right, well, I have to go get frisked by security now, so I have to let you go. Keep a running tally of the punches for me, though, and we'll meet up whenever you're free."

"Sounds good, man. Have a nice flight."

"Hey, listen. What are the odds that this is my last one? I mean, how many times have I been on a plane in the last few days? Do you think I'm just pressing my luck?"

"Get on the plane, Seth. Call me when you land and you can tell me all about your proposal."

"All right. Talk to you later."

"Bye," Ryan said, already hearing a dial tone against his ear. He took a slow, deep breath before walking back into his room. "So Taylor, what— Taylor?"

Ryan shook his head at the empty room. He growled and swung at the door of his room.

"One," he mumbled.

He sighed as his cell phone rang.

* * *

"What do you mean, you lost her?"

"I lost her the same way I lost you. Where are you Kaitlin?"

"Oh, I'm visiting Sandy and Kirsten," Kaitlin said, shrugging though Ryan couldn't see her over the phone line. "It'd been a while, so I figured I'd come see what they were up to."

"What? I thought we were supposed to be solving this problem of yours and you just leave town?"

Colin laughed as Kaitlin pulled the phone away from her ear as Ryan's voice rose.

"Listen, we just got here," Kaitlin told him as she pointed to the driveway she wanted Colin to park in, "so I'm going to have to call you back, but if you and Taylor could get here today, that would be great. Sandy's also got legal experience, so I figured we could pull him in."

She hung up before he could say anything more.

"More people to lie to?" Colin asked as he watched her get out of the car.

"Nope. These are our allies. These people are going to get the truth, and are hopefully going to help. I know Kirsten isn't big on the lying, but I think she'll still have enough of the matchmaker in her to want to help." Kaitlin opened the door without knocking and let herself in. "Sandy? Kirsten?"

"Kaitlin?"

She froze at the sound of the voice.

"Kaitlin?"

She cursed at the second.

"Mom? Frank? What are you guys doing here? Where's Kevin?"

"With the babysitter."

"You're in trouble, young lady."

"You took my—" Julie and Frank's voices stopped as they heard the same three words come out of their mouths at the same time.

"She took something from you? What?" Julie asked.

"What did she take that was yours?" Frank answered.

"I don't think that matters," Julie decided with a shake of the head. "Kaitlin, you're in big trouble. What do you have to say for yourself?"

She froze. She smiled. She pointed in Colin's direction.

"This is my husband, Colin. Colin, these are my parents. Kind of…" She offered Frank a shrug. "We can yell about this later. I have to talk to Kirsten."

Kaitlin rushed past a confused Julie and Frank, leaving an even more confused Colin behind her. She grabbed Kirsten hand and began dragging her out of the room, stopping when she walked in front of Sandy.

"What are you up to?" Kaitlin asked.

"Me?" he responded with a laugh.

"You're up to something. You've got secret written all over you." Kaitlin shrugged. "We can talk about it after this. In the meantime, you should get the guest room ready for Taylor and Ryan. Make sure you only have one bed left."

She dragged Kirsten out of the room before anyone could ask anymore questions.

Sandy smiled at the three remaining people. "Anyone ready for lunch?"


	10. Chapter 10: Home again

Hey. Thanks again for all the reviews. Here's a little more Kaitlin scheming, a tiny hint at what Sandy's not revealing and some fun banter between Taylor and Ryan (not to mention moving forward Seth and Summer's storyline). Enjoy.

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****Chapter 10: Home again**

"How was the vacation?"

"I wasn't away on vacation," Seth said with a shrug.

"Where were you?"

"I was sick."

"You don't look like you were sick."

"Thanks."

Seth finally looked up from the drawing in front of him in order to offer his co-worker one of his least genuine smiles. The man watching him smiled back, but couldn't hide the confusion in his gaze. Seth rolled his eyes as he returned his attention to his work.

"Was there anything else, Timothy?"

"No... yes. The drawing for the lemonade ad? Do you know when you're going to have that done?"

"No."

"They need it today."

Seth smiled and nodded his head. "Then I guess I'm going to have it done today."

"But what—"

"Hold on," Seth told the intern as he dug his ringing cell phone out of his pocket. He hadn't had time to program familiar numbers into his new phone's memory yet, and so he gave a sceptical glance before answering.

"Hello?" Seth waited a moment for the voice to reply. "Dr. Roberts? How are you?"

He placed his hand over his phone and nodded in Timothy's direction. "It's my doctor. Because I was sick."

Timothy nodded and waved as he left Seth the privacy of his phone call.

"You were sick?" Dr. Roberts asked when he figured Seth was listening to him once again.

"Not exactly."

"You missed a lot of work and are pretending that you're sick."

"Bronchitis."

"Seth, if you had bronchitis—"

"I know, I know, but as long as my boss doesn't, it doesn't really matter."

"Just know that I'm not writing you a note if you need one. That's unethical."

Seth laughed as he shook his head. He'd really like to see what his boss would say if he showed up to work with a note from a plastic surgeon about bronchitis. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"I was actually wondering if you were with Summer. I suppose that if you're talking to co-workers, however, that you've left her already."

"I have. I went, I saw, I—"

"Do not say conquered."

"Proposed," Seth said, his fingers nervously twirling a pencil in wobbly circles. "I was going to say proposed."

"And she said?"

"Yes. She said yes. You really haven't talked to her."

Neil sighed. "No. I've been trying to reach her to make sure everything was fine since she sounded stressed the last time I spoke with her, but now I can't reach her."

"Well, things were crazy when I was over there, and I can only imagine they're going to get busier as she gets closer to leaving."

"I suppose," Neil answered with a sigh. "If you hear from her, will you tell her to give me a call?"

"Will do, sir."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later, Seth. And good luck with that excuse of yours."

"Thanks." Seth chuckled to himself as he hung up.

"Seth."

He looked up at the sound of his name once again, cringing when the surprise almost made him extend the line he was drawing further than it should go.

"Mr. Connelly," Seth answered hesitantly, wondering if Timothy hadn't run off to the boss with his suspicion that Seth wasn't really sick.

"You're back."

"Yes, sir."

"You're ready to be back? Timothy tells me you were speaking to your doctor on the telephone. You haven't come back too soon, have you?"

Seth shook his head. "No, no I should be fine. He was just checking up to make sure I hadn't tired myself out."

"We don't want you to make yourself any sicker," Mr. Connelly told him as he took a few steps back and tightened his scarf around his neck. He narrowed his eyes at Seth suspiciously. "Doctors don't usually call patients just to check in."

"He's an old friend of the family," Seth told his boss. He cleared his throat quickly just to make the hypochondriac jump back all the same. "He doesn't treat me like just any other patient."

"Oh. Well, if you start feeling under the weather or bad for any reason whatsoever, don't hesitate to take the rest of the day off."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir."

"Good." With that, the man all but ran away from Seth and his germs.

Seth laughed and took a glance at his watch. It was still early enough in the afternoon. Maybe after this poster, he would start to feel a little under the weather…

* * *

"Um… I mean, I guess you can sleep there if you want. Or I can sleep there and you can sleep here. Or… I can go the Cohen's tonight. We're going to go tomorrow anyway, right. But there's tonight, so…."

"Right." Taylor nodded as she let out a deep breath. She dropped her luggage to the floor, and then bent to pick them up again. "Or I could go to the Cohen's tonight. I mean, there's no reason for me to put you out of a bed. I'm the one who's visiting."

"You're only visiting because I asked you to."

"You only asked me to because Kaitlin needed me. Besides, if I hadn't insisted that we go to the library and do all that research and talk to that priest and everything else I made us do, we'd be at the Cohen's right now and wouldn't have this problem."

"I only—" Ryan stopped himself and brought a hand up to scratch the back of his neck as he looked around the room. He almost wished he could ramble like Seth if only to fill the silence. "Look. There are two beds here, and my roommate—"

"Ryan! What'd I miss?"

Ryan's mouth dropped at the sight of his roommate. He hadn't seen the guy in weeks. He'd started doubting he would ever return. And it was only now that Ryan needed the other bed to be empty that he finally appeared at the door to their dorm room.

"Hey," Ryan said slowly. "You're back."

"Yeah. I did Europe. It was fun."

"I thought you were going back home for a while."

"I did. It wasn't all it's cracked up to be, so I took off. I see you weren't short for company during my absence." He nodded his head in Taylor's direction.

"I was actually helping a friend," Ryan answered as he grabbed Taylor's bags from her. "I was in New York and just got in."

"Cool."

"Yeah. Oh, this is Taylor. Taylor this is my roommate, Timothy."

"Were you the one who needed help?" Timothy asked as he glided closer to Taylor. "I'd be happy to help you if you need it."

"Oh, no thank you. It was a mutual friend of ours who needed the help."

"You know that Ryan isn't into relationships, right? He doesn't last more than a few dates if even that. You'll only find heartbreak hanging out with the likes of him."

"Believe me," Taylor answered, sending a crooked smirk in Ryan's direction, "I'm more than aware of the emotional capabilities of Ryan Atwood."

"Okay… Well if ever you should need help—"

"Great. Thanks."

Ryan shook his head as he stepped in between his friends. "Come on, Taylor. We'll go find a spot with Sandy and Kirsten where you can sleep for the night."

"You guys don't want to hang out for the night?"

Ryan shook his head as he grabbed Taylor's hand. "Nah. We're going to visit family. We'll see you later though."

"Bye, Taylor," Timothy called after them as they left the room.

Taylor laughed once they were far enough that she was sure Simon couldn't hear them. "Wow, that guy really doesn't believe in any kind of codes between roommates, does he?"

"Timothy and I have an agreement about what consists of getting in the way and what doesn't. It usually works except for the fact that he doesn't understand that some girls are exceptions. You would think that Summer punching him about seventy times would have gotten it through his head, but apparently he's still learning."

"So what's the agreement?" Taylor asked.

"Oh, it's… it's stupid really. It doesn't matter."

"It's stupid because it makes you look like a pig or it's stupid because it involves flipping a coin?"

"It's just stupid. Did you have any more bags than this?" Ryan dropped his head and looked at the hallway floor around them as though a new bag might suddenly appear at their feet.

"That's all of them. What was the arrangement?"

Ryan rolled his eyes and looked up. If there was one thing he had learned about Taylor early on, it was that she didn't give up until she got what she wanted, and from the look in her eyes, she seemed determined on getting what she was after.

"Until there's any clothes off, she's still up for grabs," Ryan mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Until the girl has removed an article of clothing, the person who didn't bring her to the room or who she's not with can still hit on her and try to convince her to get with him. That's the arrangement," Ryan sighed.

"Do shoes count?" Taylor asked after only a moment's pause. "What about a coat?"

Ryan laughed. "Now you're entering precedented territory. Any article of clothing put on as a direct result of climate or inclement weather does not count. So, if a girl has her slippers off, that still counts since slippers are the same as socks, but if she takes her sweater off because the heat in the room has been jacked too high, that doesn't. Timothy tried that last one once."

"And does the girl have any kind of say in this?"

"Sure," Ryan shrugged as he opened the door of his car for her. "The girl can change her mind at any time."

"And the other guy can't get mad?"

"No. Except the person who is without a date can't do anything out of the norm to get her to notice him. So, I can't come into the room and change clothes just so she can see me without a shirt."

"Modest," Taylor whispered, shaking her head.

"But," Ryan continued as though he hadn't heard her. "If I was working out or got a stain on my shirt during my lunch, well then I can take my shirt off and if it has any effect on her, I can't be blamed for it."

"Well that's… Why don't you just put a sock on the doorknob like any other normal college boys would?"

"We like the competition." He shrugged.

She laughed and shook her head, but said nothing more about it. "So, we're going to Sandy and Kirsten's?"

"Yep."

"And we're just going to drop in?"

"Sure," Ryan shrugged.

"Don't you think that's a little rude?"

He shrugged again, but then glanced down at his watch. "We'll call them on the way. Besides, Kaitlin must have warned them we were coming over."

Ryan grabbed her bag before she could protest, and led them away from his dorm and Timothy who was watching him from the window with a knowing smile on his face.

* * *

"What?" Summer finally asked, shaking her hair behind her shoulders and crossing her arms in front of her chest. She had felt Matthew's eyes on her all afternoon and from the way they narrowed and tried to pierce through her, she imagined she wasn't going to enjoy whatever conversation his gaze would eventually bring.

"What?" he answered.

"You're staring at me like you wish I were dead. What did I do?"

Matthew shrugged, his eyes rolling along her body. "I thought you were so busy."

"I am." Summer tugged at the hem of her shirt, suddenly feeling it was too small for her body. It wasn't revealing any skin, but from the way Matthew's eyes were on her, she felt like she was wearing much less than she actually was.  
"I thought you were swamped."

"I am. I've been ignoring my cell phone all day," Summer told him again. Her eyes hardened, leaving him only long enough to make a quick sweep of the room. There were a few people there, but they were at the other end of the banquet hall that would be used for that night's event. She hadn't noticed before how alone they were. She had a feeling, from the jumping in the pit of her stomach and the worry in her breath, that she would never again not notice when she and Matthew were alone.

"Really? So busy and swamped that you spent last night with your boyfriend instead of getting your work done?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Seth just showed up to surprise me. It was nice and if anything, it relieved me of enough stress that I got three times the amount of stuff done this morning that I would have if he hadn't come to visit. There's nothing that says we can't have guests. You've had guests."

"You're not getting paid to take a vacation with your friend."

"I'm not getting paid," Summer answered. She closed her books and gathered her pencils.

"That's not the point." He rose before she could, and by the time Summer stood, he was at his full six feet, making her feel small and almost helpless yet again.

"Look, Matthew, I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you have to understand a few things. I am with Seth. I love Seth. I am leaving this organization to be with Seth and to marry him and to start my own life. There is nothing you can do to stop that. Clear?"

Matthew's face dropped. "You're marrying him?"

"Yeah." Summer waved her left hand between them. "He asked me last night."

"You're marrying him."

"I didn't put in all these years so that he would be trained for the next girl who happened to come along and be able to look past his dorkiness."

"But… I…"

"Are delusional? That's not my fault."

Matthew shook his head. "Summer, you're making a big mistake."

"No, I'm not."

"You really are."

Summer jumped back when she saw him reaching toward her. His hand was suddenly around her arm squeezing her flesh and keeping her near him.

"Matthew, let go of my arm."

His grip only tightened. "It was all right when you were just going out and you were eventually going to realise that he wasn't the one for you and come running to me. But this… Marriage? That can't happen, Summer. You're supposed to stay on. You're supposed to realise that you hate your life without GEORGE before you leave and are miserable for the rest of your life. Can't you see that, Summer?"

"All I see is the same look that I used to see in Oliver's eyes whenever Ryan got a little too close to Marissa."

Matthew's expression didn't change. He had no idea what she was talking about, but he wasn't about to let that dissuade him.

"And that's not a good thing," she finished. Summer gave a hard tug on her arm until it fell from his grip.

She hurried down the hallway, not looking back and not wanting to hear the sound of his footsteps following her.

* * *

"No, we're fine. We'll get your room ready." Sandy's eyes travelled the room, pausing only a minute to wink at Kirsten before he concentrated once again on the conversation he was having. "Two? Why… You know what, explain it to me when you get here. We'll set something up."

He hung up and raised his eyebrows at Kirsten.

"Who was that?"

"Ryan. He and Taylor are on their way just as Kaitlin had predicted. They need a place to stay for the evening."

"I'll put fresh sheets on Ryan's bed."

"They requested two rooms."

"We don't have… Well, I'll get Ryan's room ready, anyway."

Kirsten patted Sophie on the head and left the kitchen. Her daughter was quick to follow.

"So he called you last minute and now he's just going to show up? That's a little rude, don't you think?" Julie asked as she grabbed the last bagel from the bowl on the counter.

"Yeah," Sandy scowled. "Imagine, someone just showing up uninvited and expecting to be fed and housed for God only knows how long."

"That's funny. I'll be sure to pass the message along to my daughter and her husband." She grabbed the glass of juice Sandy had just poured himself and moved over to a chair at the end of the counter. "So, you were out early this morning."

"I'm sorry?"

"I was making an observation to the fact that you were out early this morning."

Sandy shrugged. "Yeah, well, some of us do work around here. Someone has to pay for the food that's feeding all the unexpected guests."

"You're just a riot today, Sandy. I didn't realise there were classes to be taught at six in the morning."

"There aren't. But there are quiet offices where a man can correct essays without being bothered by the sounds of his household."

"You couldn't find a quiet corner of this house at six in the morning when everyone else was sleeping?"

"Working in this home just invites people to wake up and make some noise."

Julie sighed and moved around the kitchen island so she could stand next to him. "Listen, Sandy. I know infidelity, and I don't think for a second that you're cheating on Kirsten. But I also know lying and scheming, and there's no way that you aren't up to something. Even Kaitlin can smell it, and she's only been around a few hours now."

"You're just trying to create drama that isn't there, Julie. Concentrate on your own problems and your own lies so you can keep them straight, and you can worry about me later on, though there's really nothing to worry about."

"Really?"

Sandy rolled his eyes at Julie and quietly thanked his lucky stars when his cell phone rang to interrupt the conversation.

"Hello?"

Julie leaned forward.

"Excuse me."

"I thought you had nothing to hide."

"I don't have anything to hide, but that doesn't mean that I want to share news with the gossip queen and have everyone know within minutes what's going on in other people's lives."

"Fine. But I'm on to you, Sandy Cohen." Julie told him as she walked out of the room. She walked backwards, her eyes on him and a finger pointed in his direction.

Sandy shook his head, but dropped his smile as soon as she left the room. He brought his attention back to his telephone. "So? Did you find her?"

* * *

"We're lying to more people?" Colin asked as he took a bite of his ice cream bar.

Kaitlin shrugged. "I guess."

"Is there anyone who can know the truth?"

"You can tell Kevin," Kaitlin answered with a smile.

"Who's Kevin?"

"Kevin is the reason we're going out of town tonight."

Colin smiled as he sighed and shook his head. "I swear, it's a good thing that I don't need to study or anything."

"No one studies during study break. Besides, I'm sure your life could use a little spicing up before you met me. I'm just here to oblige."

"So, who is Kevin?" Colin asked as he got into the passenger seat of the Mercedes that had taken them to the ice cream shop. "Are you really married to him? Carrying his child?"

"No, gross. I told you I was single and definitely not pregnant."

"But you have a pregnancy test on you?"

"Not mine."

Colin's face scrunched together at the thought. "That's gross. You're carrying someone else's pee around with you."

"Well what was I supposed to do? Ryan wouldn't have believed me if I didn't have it. He knows better than to trust anything that comes out of my mouth unless I'm being brutally honest to prove a point."

"All right, so who is Kevin?"

"Kevin is my little brother," Kaitlin answered with a shrug. "We're going to go pick him up at my aunt's."

"In Berkeley?"

"In Newport."

"Great."

"Come on. Stop complaining. You're riding around in a Mercedes with a hot girl. What's there to whine about?"

"This is a hot car," Colin slowly conceded.

"I know. That's why my mom never lets me drive it."

"What about now?"

"She just doesn't know I have the keys yet."

Kaitlin offered him a smile before she changed gears and sped up a few more ticks over the speed limit.


	11. Chapter 11: Let's just pretend

Hey everyone, thanks again for all the reviews and comments. Here's the next chapter.

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Chapter 11: Let's just pretend everything's all right

"So, what happened?"

Summer looked up from where she had been pushing her macaroni and cheese around her plate with confused eyes. "Huh?"

"What happened? You look like the most miserable person on earth."

"Oh," Summer shrugged as she moved over to make room for Jessica to sit next to her at the picnic table. "Nothing really. The stress is just getting to me. Seth had to leave. Matthew's being a jerk… Nothing to worry about."

"You're sure?"

"Positive," Summer told her with a smile.

"Really? Because I brought an extra pudding cup in case it was something serious."

Summer's teeth shone through as her tight smile became something real. She reached out for the offered dessert. "Well, even if I'm not miserable, that's no reason why I shouldn't get a pudding cup."

"Whoa."

Summer jerked forward as her hand was held firmly, keeping her from bringing the pudding cup closer to her.

"What's this?" Jessica asked.

"My pudding?"

"No. This thing on your finger here."

Summer's smile widened and her eyes brightened at the thought. "That's my engagement ring."

"Your what now?"

"My engagement ring. Seth was in town for a night and he asked me if I would marry him."

"And you said?"

"Do you see the ring?"

"It's kind of—"

"It's temporary," Summer shrugged. "I told him what I really wanted and he's getting that for me."

"He doesn't mind that you want to exchange your engagement ring?"

"I think Seth bought it well aware that I was going to exchange it. I'm surprised he didn't show up with something from a bubble gum machine—" Summer froze and smiled for a moment at a memory that came to mind at the words.

"Summer?"

"Sorry. Anyway, no, he doesn't mind, and that's great because I would never survive with this thing on my hand for the rest of my life. It weighs a ton."

"Doesn't Seth know that you aren't a bodybuilder?"

"It's Seth," Summer shrugged. "He probably thought that the heavier the rock, the more love."

"It's sweet though."

"It's very sweet."

"And at least it got your mind off whatever's bothering."

Summer shook her head at the thought. "I definitely don't think about Matthew when Seth's on my mind."

"Did you have your fight or whatever with Matthew before or after he noticed the diamond on your hand?"

"After, I guess."

"Summer…" Jessica sighed, pushing her food around her plate with her white, plastic fork. "You do realise that Matthew's like, completely in love with you, right?"

"What?"

"Yeah. He has been for a while now. Loves everything about you."

Summer froze for a moment, then shook her head quickly. "No. No, that's impossible. He's got… other preoccupations. I don't think he's even over his ex yet."

"I think he is, and I think he got over her by fixating on you, sweetie."

"No… no, way."

"I'm just warning you. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't take this engagement well at all. I don't know what he's going to do about it."

"He'll just have to settle for whoever actually lets him buy their love."

"With what? He works for GEORGE; he can't have that much money to spend."

Summer shrugged. "I think he's like a trust fund kid or something. He's always talking about all the things he could buy the woman he dates."

"No way. I met his parents once while they were visiting. He's no trust fund kid. He's barely making ends meet from what I hear."

"Whatever," Summer finally gave up with a shrug. "Right now, alll I have time to worry about is getting the rest of this paperwork done."

Jessica shrugged and left Summer to her work. Summer looked down at the numbers in front of her, and then gnawed on her pencil for a moment.

She had nothing to worry about, right?

* * *

"I brought you something."

Seth looked up from his drawings and smiled at his visitor.

"For me?" he asked, reaching out for the thermos his co-worker was pointing in his direction.

"I heard you were sick last week, and then you left early yesterday… I figured I could bring you a little something."

"Soup?" Seth asked as he opened the container. He frowned when he saw what was inside. He pulled out the comic book, smiled at the cover and set it aside. "Thanks, Sam."

"I didn't really believe you were sick," she told him as she moved a stool over from the desk next to his and peered over at his work. "You weren't really sick were you?"

"Of course I was. Bronchitis or something. I forget what excuse I used. Wait, weren't you covering for me?"

"Oops. Where were you really?" Samantha asked him as she moved the pencils around on his desk. Seth stole a few from her and put them on the other side of his body where she couldn't reach them.

"I had a few errands to run."

"Like what?"

"Like asking Summer to marry me," Seth answered, unable to keep a smile from adorning his lips at the thought.

"Oh. You're still with Summer?"

Seth laughed. "Of course I'm still with Summer. Did you hear any differently at any time? I've been with Summer since the tenth grade, and I'll be with Summer pretty much forever now."

"So you're happy just dating one girl you're entire life?"

"I've dated other girls."

"Who?"

"Anna and Alex. I went on that date with Lindsay too, but then she ended up being my aunt, so I guess it's a good thing we never really hooked up."

"You dated your aunt?"

"Accidentally, and I guess she's just my half-aunt… I lose track."

"Okay, your family needs help."

"Nah," Seth shrugged. "We're okay now. Most of us have left Newport."

"So you're marrying Summer. Are you sure that's going to work out. I mean, what if she can't find a job when she's done with Paul?"

"GEORGE," he replied without looking up. "She has a trust fund. She'll be fine. Though, I don't think Summer could stand not having a job now. She'll find something to do, something somewhere to save."

"And what if she never finds a job, or never wants kids, or, you know, something else that's big. Have you two discussed all these things?"

"We'll figure it out," Seth shrugged.

"Seth, you're a comic book genius, and she's some spoiled brat who's spending all the goodness of her heart on some organization which will leave none for you and make her a super bitch when she eventually lives with you."

"No. She was a super bitch, and then I coaxed that out of her and made her the super hero that she is today. See?" Seth held up two drawings of Summer he always kept on his desk. One of the girl she was when she would ignore him in the halls of their high school, and another of her saving the earth with a strong gust of breath that blew pollution away and back into the factories from where the smog and unbiodegradable materials had escaped.

"That's just a drawing, Seth. That's not the girl you're going to be marrying."

"What is your problem? Did you get dumped again or something?"

Samantha tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Regardless of what is going on in my personal life, she doesn't deserve you. You wait a few years when you become famous for your drawings, and you'll realise it. You are so much better than this girl."

"I'm perfect for her, and she's perfect for me. If we could survive her dad, Taylor, Marissa, GEORGE, Anna, all my lies and more, there is no other conclusion than we were made for each other. It took me five years to realise that Summer wasn't too good for me. There's no way I'm going to suddenly decide that I'm too good for her."

"Come on, Seth. I mean, would Summer buy you a comic book?"

"Only if she did something really wrong, I suppose." He shrugged again. "But if she did. She wouldn't roll it up in a thermos. She would know that I can't board it up right if it's been curled and that the edges will never stay flat after that."

"It was cute. I just wanted—"

"It was cute, but it shows that all you know about me is that I'm a comic book geek. Nothing else." He sighed when he saw her eyes drop for a moment. "Listen, I'm sorry if you got dumped again, or whatever else it is that is turning you into a super bitch today, but don't take it out on Summer, okay? If you knew her, you'd think she was great."

Samantha nodded quietly. "You're right. I'm sorry. If you love her, I'm sure she is great."

"She is." Seth picked up the drawing he'd been working on throughout their conversation. "I have to bring this to the big chief before he freaks out. I'll talk to you later. All right?"

"Sure," Samantha nodded with a tight smile. She watched Seth walk away and picked up the drawing of Summer saving the world.

"Just not worth it," she mumbled to herself as she let go of the picture so it would flutter into Seth's garbage.

* * *

"Remember when we were worrying about being empty-nesters and finding time long and never having anything to do?" Kirsten asked Sandy as she stirred pancake batter mix. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to push the bacon around the hot frying pan in front of him. Kirsten sighed. "What happened to those days? What happened to the empty nest?"

"Sophie happened," Sandy shrugged. "And Julie, and Ryan, and Seth, and apparently even Taylor. Though, to be honest, I was never worried about not having anything to do in our empty nest. I had quite a few ideas of what could be done to pass the time once the kids were gone."

He moved away from the sizzling meat and sidled up behind Kirsten so he could wrap his arm around her waist. He dug his nose in the nape of her neck and spread soft kisses against the flesh he could reach.

"This is as full as the nest gets, honey. I don't think we should be—"

"They're all asleep," Sandy whispered to her. "No one will ever find out if we just—"

He didn't get much further and let his forehead drop against Kirsten's skin when he heard a cough behind him. He knew that cough. In fact, it wasn't the first time that he and Kirsten were being interrupted by that cough.

"Ryan. You're up early."

"Yeah, sorry. I went out for a jog. The couch is comfortable, but way too small for sleeping on."

"You slept on the couch?"

"Yeah," Ryan yawned as he opened the refrigerator to find a bottle of water. "I gave Taylor the bed."

Kirsten sighed. "I assumed yesterday when you said you had it covered that you meant you'd be sharing the bed with Taylor."

"She offered," Ryan shrugged. "But that would be opening a can of worms that I'm not sure I'm ready to revisit."

"Really?" Sandy asked. "Because the last news I had heard, you had never really closed that can of worms and you were just in denial about everything that was you and Taylor."

"Fine, then it's a can of worms that I don't want to knock over and accidentally have all the worms spill out. Or at least, not anymore than we already have. Plus I might be in the doghouse. How's that?"

"That's… You're very romantic, Ryan. Pancake?"

"Shower." He smiled and moved around the couple. "Food after."

He left the room and Kirsten had barely heard his foot fall onto the first step to reach the second level when she once again felt nuzzling at her ear.

"Was that call not close enough for you?"

"He's in the shower. Who knows how long that's going to take?"

"It's Ryan. He might just be a few minutes."

"All I need is a few minutes," Sandy told her as he spun her around to face him.

"Now that's romantic."

"Actually, in some cultures speed is considered an endearing quality. Like size, or stamina, or girth would be in others."

"Taylor," Kirsten greeting in an icy voice as Sandy moved away from her and back to his bacon. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, great, thanks. Was that Ryan I heard going upstairs?"

"Yes. Where were you?"

"In the living room waiting for him to get back. I guess I fell asleep. Do you know where he went, earlier?"

"For a jog," Sandy answered over his shoulder. "Ryan likes to jog in the morning. It clears his mind."

"Oh. Did he happen to say what it was he wanted to clear from his mind?"

Sandy did his best to hide his smile from Taylor. "No he did not. Still not much of a talker our Ryan."

"That's an understatement," Taylor said, rolling her eyes. "Maybe I should go up and—"

"Taylor, he's in the shower and I have a young daughter in this house. You are not going up there and seeing Ryan naked, because quite frankly, I don't trust you enough to let you do that."

"Kiki, I'm hurt. You can trust me."

"Not when it comes to Ryan. Sit and eat something. You can talk to him when he comes out of the shower."

Taylor sighed and let herself drop on one of the kitchen stools. "Are you sure you don't want me to leave the room so you two can finish what you had started?"

"Sit," Sandy and Kirsten said at the same time.

"Hello?"

All three looked back at the sound of the new voice.

"Kaitlin? Where have you been? We didn't even here you come in last night."

"Newport," she shrugged. "I just threw Kevin at Frank and Julie. There was no reason to leave the poor kid in Newport with the Lindley's. I brought bagels."

"A girl after my heart," Sandy said as he grabbed the bag from her. He hadn't even had the time to open the bag before his cell phone rang, interrupting him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before bringing it to his ear. "Hello?"

Kirsten watched him from the corner of her eye as she continued to work on the pancakes. She tried not to listen to his end of the conversation, focussing instead on the argument Taylor and Kaitlin were having about what was the best toping for their bagels; Taylor opting for the healthiest while Kaitlin reached for the sweetest.

"I have to run out for a moment," Sandy said, wrapping his arm around Kirsten's waist and dropping a kiss on her temple. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

Kirsten groaned. "I can't wait for this semester to be over."

"You and me both," Sandy answered, grabbing a bagel and heading toward the front door with a wave in the girls' direction.

Kaitlin scrunched her brow as she watched him leave. "What kind of school is he working at that he has to be called away on a Sunday morning?"

"It always gets a little crazy during exam times."

"Huh." Kaitlin shrugged and pointed half of her chocolate smear covered bagel in Kirsten's direction. "Bite?"

* * *

Ryan winced when his head hit the side of the shower a little harder than he had intended. Or perhaps he had meant to hit himself that hard if that's what it took to knock a little sense into him.

He had been doing fine. Well, all right, he hadn't been doing fine, but he had been doing well enough that he had convinced himself he wasn't affected by Taylor's visit. Not anymore affected than he would be by the visit of any other woman after going so many months alone.

But then he'd had to reach for his book in the middle of the night when he couldn't fall asleep.

The problem wasn't the book. The book was fantastic and Ryan was barely able to put it down when he really got into it, which was great for nights like the previous when something or someone was wracking his mind and keeping him from getting the sleep even he could admit he really needed.

The problem was that the bag with the book wasn't next to him. And it was only after a few scans of the room and a few tired rubs at his eyes that he realised why. Despite his early warning, Kirsten had put his bag in his bedroom with Taylor's things. Taylor had gotten upset—though she tried her best to hide it—when Ryan had told her that despite the fact that they were adults and they must be able to share a room without anything sexual taking over them, that he would rather sleep in the living room. Her lip had quivered even as she assured him that he was right. He hadn't thought of grabbing his bag before he left the room, fisting his hands so he wouldn't reach out and pull the girl to him to comfort her.

So, even though he knew it was a bad idea, he made his way to the guest room where Taylor was staying and snuck through the door at one in the morning. She was sleeping. Ryan had never told anyone but Seth that he melted at the sight of a sleeping Taylor. It wasn't that she looked sweet or innocent or anything that had made him smile when he had been watching a sleeping Marissa. It was simply that she was asleep, and that he got to see her asleep, and that she was so perfectly quiet.

Needless to say, Ryan didn't sleep for the rest of the night, and now, he was most probably using up all of his family's hot water.

He sighed as he got out of the shower and started to towel off. He knocked over his bag as he moved through the bathroom, and watched as his cell phone fell out. With another sigh, he picked it up and dialled a number that was almost becoming familiar.

"Yeah?"

"I'm not over Taylor."

"Yeah, that's shocking news, buddy," Seth offered with absolutely no sympathy.

"I can't even pretend that I'm over her now," Ryan continued as though his brother had never spoken. "I saw her sleeping."

"Aw, the Ryan Atwood kryptonite. Did she sneak up on you and fall asleep where you couldn't help but see her, or what?"

"Sandy and Kirsten put my bag in the guest room where she was staying. They thought we would be sleeping in the same room."

"What? My mom still gives me a look when I tell her Summer and I will be sharing a bed when we visit. How did you get away with a free bed with Taylor?"

"The house is a little full." Ryan shrugged though Seth couldn't see it. "Julie is here taking up the other guest room."

"Julie Cooper and my parents are both involved in the plot to get you in bed with Taylor? That's a major sign from the universe, buddy."

"Seth. Focus."

"All right. So you're not over her. What's the big deal? Just tell her that. It's Taylor. Trust me, she'll be more than happy to have you back in her life."

"It just got so messy last time."

"Messy?" Seth asked, his voice rising high enough that Ryan pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment. "What mess? You guys didn't even really break up."

"The mess in my head, Seth, which is leading me to believe that even now, so much later, I'm still in lo—" Ryan cut himself off before he could say the last word.

"Whoa. Did you just hear what you were about to say, man?"

"Yeah."

"Where's Taylor now?"

"I don't know. I think she was still sleeping when I came back from my jog."

"Where are you?"

"In the bathroom."

"You're calling me from the bathroom?" Seth whined.

"Yeah."

"What are you wearing?"

"Seth…"

"I'm serious. You're calling me from the bathroom, man."

"I'm wearing a towel. I came back from my jog and—"

"No. No. Don't want to know. Ryan, you are calling me from our parents' bathroom while wearing a towel. What does this say to you?"

"I've lost it, haven't I?"

"Talk to the girl. You love her, you almost said so yourself. What's the worse that could happen?"

Ryan let his forehead fall against the bathroom door. "It's Taylor."

"Right, so a lot. Well, good luck. Talk to her." Seth hung up before Ryan could get in another word.

* * *

"Kaitlin? What are you doing?"

Kaitlin jumped back at the sound of her mother's voice, hand pressing against her heart at the surprise. She let her eyes wander back to the bathroom door where she'd been listening to Ryan, and then smiled at her mother.

"You scared me," she said.

"Sorry. What are you doing?"

"Eavesdropping," Kaitlin shrugged. "Why aren't you still sleeping?"

"You threw Kevin at me and you thought I'd just sleep through that?"

"I guess not." Kaitlin shrugged. "Well, I'm going to go help Kirsten with breakfast."

"Wait. Stop. Turn."

Kaitlin rolled her eyes but did as her mother told her.

"What is going on with you?"

"I'm on a mission."

"What's your mission?"

"Getting Ryan and Taylor back together."

"Kaitlin, Ryan and Taylor are a mess right now. You shouldn't get involved with that."

"He just told Seth he loved Taylor."

Julie's jaw dropped. "In words? Ryan's not very big on the words."

"In words," Kaitlin nodded.

"Fine. I meant to ask you though, did you take my pregnancy test?"

"Yeah, I needed to convince Ryan I needed his help. I kind of threw it out. It's pee on a stick, that's gross."

"Don't say pee," Julie sighed. "I guess I don't need it, right? I know what it says."

"Does Frank know what it says?" Kaitlin asked as she let herself lean against the wall.

"No. We're… We haven't gotten around to that conversation yet."

"To say the least."

Julie narrowed her eyes, but reached out her arm to wrap around Kaitlin's shoulder and lead her away from the bathroom door where she'd been eavesdropping.

"What is it that you took from Frank?" Julie suddenly asked as they were making their way down the stairs.

"Money," Kaitlin answered with a nod after a short pause. "Money to get to Berkeley."

"Kaitlin…"

"I know. I'll pay it back."

"No kidding. Let's go find Kiki. I'm sure Sandy has had some emergency by now and she's alone."

"She's with Taylor."

"Then let's hurry."


	12. Chapter 12: On the way

Wow, over 60 reviews! Thanks so much everyone.

Here's the next chapter. Though not everything (in fact not much) is found in this chapter, revelation of what Sandy is up to is soon to come.

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****Chapter 12: ****On the way**

Summer growled at the papers spread out in front of her, cursing the report that was missing from the pile. She was sure she had it with her when they left the hotel. She had checked twice the night before to make sure it was in her bag. Now, here she was with her butt on the floor of the coach bus and papers flying around her, unable to find the projected budget report.

She growled again.

"Problems, princess?"

Summer rolled her eyes without looking up from the task at hand. "A little busy here, Matthew."

"What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm looking for the budget report for this afternoon's meeting and it's hiding really well."

"Oh, I have that."

"What?" Summer asked, dropping the papers she'd been holding.

"I grabbed it from your bag when you rushed off for your coffee at the last stop."

"You…" She took a deep breath to stifle the words that were trying to make their way out of her mouth. "Can you pass them back to me?"

"I need them."

"No, I need them to get ready for this afternoon's meeting. I'm the one who's talking about the budget at the meeting. I think I need it slightly more than you do."

"Yeah," Matthew sighed as he got up from the seat he'd taken next to her. "You're not talking at today's meeting."

"What?"

"You're not going to be speaking at today's meeting. Actually, you're not even going to be attending."

Summer reached out and grabbed Matthew's leg. She tugged quickly until he lost his balance and fell on his ass, brining him to her height. He shifted awkwardly between the rows of seats.

"What?"

"I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, Summer—"

"Like hell you didn't."

"But," Matthew continued as though she had never spoken, "there seems to be a problem with the numbers. Your replacement noticed it while working on the books. There's money missing and while no one wants to accuse you, you're the one who worked most closely with the numbers—"

"Since last month when Jeffrey left."

"And while we're all sure you had nothing to do with this. I'm afraid we can't let you continue working on the budget until your name is cleared."

"What?"

"Hey, look at it this way," Matthew reached out and patted her shoulder, quickly taking his hand away when he noticed the fire in her eyes. "You get to go back to Sean quicker."

"Seth."

He shrugged. "You get to run home to your fiancé—without a job or a reference, or anything to show for the last years of your life since you won't want to mention past employment that is looking into the possibility that you stole from them—but home. It's not like you needed a reference to become a desperate housewife anyway, right?"

"Listen here," Summer told him as she grabbed his collar and pulled him closer to her face. "You aren't going to get away with this. You and I both know that I didn't play with the numbers, if anyone even did for that matter. And I don't care if this has to go Townsend and Dean Hess or Veronica's evil plans for my dad style, but you are going down because while I could ignore how annoyed you were by Seth and me, this here is just going too far."

Matthew smiled and pried her fingers from his shirt. "I have no idea what most of that meant, but I hope you and your fiancé enjoy your time in the unemployment lines. You have no other work experience, but I'm sure an attractive girl like you can charm your way into a position somewhere… or with someone, if you will. You're employment here is done."

He winked at her and chucked her chin with a curled index finger. Summer narrowed her eyes, but somehow managed to keep herself from causing him any bodily harm. She would be stuck on the bus for a while still, and she didn't want to have to deal with the smell of blood during that time.

She left her papers where they lay on the floor and took a seat next to a window, her arms crossed in front of her chest and an unhappy pout on her face.

* * *

Ryan lifted his arm, causing Sophie to swing awkwardly as Taylor tried to match the height and strength of his grip. They let Sophie drop to the ground simultaneously, and she ran away from them launching herself against Kirsten.

"Mommy!"

"Hey, sweetie," Kirsten greeted as she bent down to kiss her daughter's head. "Did you have fun with Ryan and Taylor?"

"Yes."

"What did you guys do?"

"We had ice cream."

"Right before lunch?" Kirsten asked as she sent a stern look in Ryan and Taylor's direction.

"I wasn't supposed to tell," Sophie told her mother with a wide grin on her face.

"Uh oh."

"Oops?" Sophie shrugged up at Kirsten before heading down the hall toward her father's office.

"Don't worry," Kirsten called after her. "Ryan can't lie anyway, so we would have found out soon enough."

Ryan laughed and moved toward the counter where he picked up one of the carrots Kirsten had peeled before their arrival. "Sorry. She asked and how could I say no?"

"No. It's easy and simple."

"But then she pouts. And I get to see her so rarely."

"You see her practically every weekend, Ryan."

"I take her out so rarely?"

Kirsten shook her head at him though she couldn't hide the small smile on her face. "You really are horrible with the lies."

"Kiki," Taylor interrupted, her own smile on her face as she watched the two interact. "Is Kaitlin upstairs?"

"No, she left with Julie."

"Shopping?" Ryan ventured.

"No, they're headed back to school with Frank and Colin and Kevin."

"What?"

"They went back to school. Oh," Kirsten jumped when the doorbell rang. "Those are my flowers. Excuse me."

She rushed away, unaware of the look that passed between Taylor and Ryan.

"What?" Taylor finally asked after feeling Ryan's eyes on her for a while and fighting the guilty blush that had no reason to creep up her cheek.

"Kaitlin left," Ryan answered.

"Yeah, so?"

"Kaitlin left without us getting her divorce situation resolved."

"It would seem that way."

"Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

Taylor huffed as she stared at Ryan and tried to find words. She grabbed a carrot from the counter and pointed it in Ryan's direction.

"What exactly are you saying?"

"Nothing. I was just pointing out that it seemed weird that Kaitlin came to me with this big emergency, and then suddenly disappeared before we could actually solve her problem."

"And that's probably my doing, right? There's Taylor and she needed to see Ryan so she thought up a crazy plan to get him to see her, just like she thought up a crazy plan to get him to say he loved her and to fool him into making out with her and to—"

"Taylor, I didn't say those things."

"You didn't have to. You didn't have to say them any of the times you thought them because they were always hidden in everything you said."

Ryan huffed, threw his hands in the air and walked a few feet away from her. "It's always like this with you. Can't you get over it? Grow up like the rest of us did?"

"Grow up?"

"You're exactly the same as you were the last time we were together. All you thought you were back then was divorced and promiscuous and scheming, and it's all you think you are now. Taylor, you've got to get over it and be an adult. Even Seth and Summer got over their ever repetitive shit to find the balance they have now."

"So you think I should grow up?" Taylor asked. She dropped the carrot to the counter and swiped at her cheeks, making sure none of the tears she felt prickling at her eyes had fallen.

"I'm just saying that we've all learned from our mistakes and matured. Maybe you should too."

"I should mature? I should grow up?" Her voice grew icy as her chin rose and she tried to ignore how Ryan took a step back from her. "My father left my family when I was seven. My mother would bring me along to her work functions and make me sit in the corner with nothing to entertain me but magazines of the athletes she represented and their contracts. She ignored me so I had to take care of myself whether that be by going off to France and getting married or escaping Newport for England when I did finally find some kind of balance. Grow up? Grow up, Ryan? I've been a grown up since I was eight.

"Why do you think I never fit in? Why do you think it was so hard for me to make friends? It wasn't because I wasn't pretty or funny or smart. It was because I was always ten years older than everyone. So I'm sorry if I haven't evolved enough for you in the past few years that we've been apart and that you've apparently become this great adult of a person, but I had nowhere else to go. I have been in stasis for years now. And if you never really loved the person I was and can obviously not grow to love her, well then don't even bother explaining to me what's wrong because it's much too late for me to change now."

She pushed past him before he could think of an answer. He watched her fly away and tried to ignore the hitch he heard in her breath which he knew meant she was only moments away from crying.

When he could finally focus on his surroundings, he found Kirsten at the edge of the kitchen, watching him with worried eyes.

"Probably not the best choice of words," he told her. He offered her the only smile he could find in him—a sad, pathetic attempt at a smile—and walked past her and out the door. He didn't doubt Taylor would be able to find her way to wherever it was she would be heading next.

* * *

If it were five years ago, he would have sworn she was doing it on purpose. If it wasn't now and where they were in their relationship, Seth would have guessed that Summer was ignoring his telephone calls just to make sure he knew how she had felt when she couldn't reach him. It wasn't those days of their relationship however, and they had grown since that time. And so Seth thought it was completely acceptable that he should be freaking out over the fact that he couldn't reach his girlfriend.

He growled as he dropped his phone to his desk and let his head fall forward.

"Problem?"

"Understatement," he mumbled, keeping his head down.

"Did your phone die?" Samantha asked as she picked up the cell phone with one hand and pulled Seth's head up with a strong grip on his hair.

Seth swatted her away from his head and grabbed his phone from her. "No. I just can't reach Summer."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Is she having second thoughts?" Samantha asked her eyes widening and her voice dropping in pity.

Seth rolled his eyes. "No, she isn't having second thoughts. She's just not answering her phone. There's a perfectly good explanation for why she isn't answering her phone."

"Which is?"

"None of your business," Seth offered. He grabbed one of his sketches and a pencil to make some adjustments, focussing on anything other than Samantha.

The girl watched him for a moment and finally plopped down on a stool near his desk. She kept her eyes on him as he worked.

"Don't you have somewhere to be? Something to do?"

"No," she answered.

"Why don't you go pester Timothy? He's single now. He might find it endearing."

"Because I don't find him endearing. I'd much rather sit here with you."

"I'm working."

Samantha shrugged. "I'm just watching."

"It's actually—" Seth stopped himself when he heard his cell phone ring. He watched it for a moment, then suddenly seemed to realise that it required a reaction from him. He dove for it without stopping to look at the caller ID. "Summer?"

Samantha's eyes narrowed as she watched him.

"Che? What are you… Are you calling me from my own cell phone?"

"Well, now that you've gotten a new one, there really isn't a point in sending you this one. Why would you need two cell phones?" Che asked calmly.

"You aren't calling China with that thing, are you Che?"

"No, but I have been trying to reach Summer, and I can't. Do you know where she is? I had a dream that a little Summer-bear was in a downward honey spiral. It was very transcending."

"What's a Summer-bear?"

"It's a bit of a cross between a panda, a koala and a polar bear."

"What kind of temper does it have?"

"Angered grizzly."

"Sounds like her." Seth sighed. He swatted Samantha's hand away when she reached for a sketch that looked suspiciously like that of a credit card wielding super heroine. "I haven't been able to reach her lately either. I think she's really busy getting things settled before she's done with GEORGE."

"I think we both know it's more than that my little otter friend."

"I'm trying not to think about that right now, Che."

"Denial is a very strong temptation, Seth, but you cannot give in to it. Where would we be now if everyone had simply denied the crimes of our ancestors and never protested the atrocities, the sexism, racism, animalisms—"

"Animalisms, Che?"

"Those things that made our nation what we never wanted it to—"

"What is it you want me to do?" Seth asked, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know where she is and I don't know how to reach her. What do you want me to do?"

"I would like you to sing a song with me, Seth."

Seth's eyes narrowed and he wished once again that he could pull off with one of his looks all the emotion Ryan always managed to convey, even if Che was across the country and couldn't see him.

"I feel those eyes of yours, man, and I understand that you don't believe in what I'm doing, but this is about Summer."

"This is about Summer."

"And you want to make sure she's all right, don't you?"

"I do."

"Then sing with me, Seth. Sing with me a song to find Summer."

Seth's face contorted in confusion as what he assumed were words fell from Che's mouth over the line. He moved the phone away from his ear and offered an embarrassed nod to Samantha who was watching him and the phone closely. His embarrassment quickly faded into a wide grin, however, when he spotted someone entering the office and looking around in confusion.

"Summer?" He asked, closing the phone as he moved forward.

"Seth!" Summer's face brightened as she launched herself in his direction. They met halfway between the door and his desk and Seth swept her up in his arms before setting her back on the ground.

"What are you doing here? I've been trying to reach you all morning."

"Oh." Summer's hand dipped into her purse as she kept her eyes on Seth. "I had to shut my phone off for the flight. I guess I forgot to turn it back on in my rush to get here."

"You should call Che, by the way. He had a chant and everything going to find you."

"Let him keep chanting," Summer told him as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "I don't want to interrupt you at work, but—"

"Interrupt me at work, go on. I did the same to you. Though, aren't you supposed to be in Arkansas right now?"

Summer's face soften at the realisation that Seth probably knew her schedule even better than she did. "Yeah, but I'm home now."

"Give you the boot, did they?" Samantha asked with a wide smile as she leaned against Seth's drawing table.

"I decided I wanted to come home early."

"So you abandoned your coworkers and your team."

Summer smiled and leaned her head against Seth's chest. "I finished everything early. I settled everything that needed to be settled and I trained everyone that needed to be trained. So I figured I'd come home to real food, real showers, and my very real fiancé."

She smiled and leaned up to meet Seth's lips.

"I really like the sound of that. And hey, you're even still wearing the ring."

"Well have you gotten me another one yet?"

"Nope."

Summer shrugged. "Then I guess I'm still wearing this ring."

"You're making him buy you a new ring?" Samantha asked with a sneer as she watched the two cuddle together.

"He offered," Summer told the girl, her eyes narrowing and her voice becoming icy. "Who are you again?"

"I'm Samantha."

Summer shook her head. "Samantha who?"

"I'm Samantha, Seth's co-worker."

"Hmm. Doesn't ring a bell. Listen, Seth, I have to go shopping. Do you need anything?"

"Why are you going shopping?"

"I don't have any clothes," Summer shrugged.

"You have plenty of clothes."

"I don't have any clothes here."

"What about the clothes you were lugging around the country with GEORGE?"

"They're not here yet."

Seth's eyebrow rose as he moved toward his desk with Summer still attached around his waist. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Summer shrugged and smiled. "When I heard I could come home I was so excited that I got off at the next stop and found the nearest airport to get me here. I didn't bother waiting for them to find my bags with all the other ones on that bus. They'll send it to me when they find them."

"Oh." Seth looked surprised as he picked up one of his pencils to scribble on some paper while they talked. "I figured you meant the airport had lost them or something."

Summer smiled a tight grin, mumbling between her teeth. "That would have been a much better excuse."

"What?"

"Huh? Nope. So you don't need anything?"

"Nothing," Seth told her, leaning down to drop a kiss on her nose.

"Great. Well, then I'll see you back home." She gave him a kiss on the lips and finally untangled herself from him. She smiled sweetly as she passed his co-worker. "Nice meeting you, Samantha."

"You too, Summer."

Both she and Seth watched as Summer left the room.

"Dude, she was hot," Timothy offered as he passed by, dropping a few papers on Seth's desk and moving on his way.

* * *

"So where did you meet?" Julie asked as she looked over her shoulder, making sure Kevin was still asleep in the backseat and forming an obstacle between Kaitlin and her supposed husband.

"At the airport."

"And you just thought you'd volunteer him as your better half?"

"He talked to me first," Kaitlin shrugged. "Besides, this is Ryan we're talking about here. He wasn't going to believe anything I had to say unless I showed up with some hard proof. He's harder to convince than you two."

"Yet you convinced him you were pregnant," Frank said, glancing in the rear-view mirror to see Kaitlin.

"And married," Julie quickly interrupted before they could go much further down that road.

"I got game," Kaitlin shrugged. "Unlike Sandy. What is going on with him?"

"He was acting a little weird," Frank agreed.

"And Kirsten's definitely noticed it."

"I'm voting it's Seth and Summer related," Kaitlin piped up. "Sandy wouldn't get this involved in anything if it wasn't family."

"The Nana is gone," Julie agreed with a shrug. "And you never hear about Sandy's siblings."

"Maybe it's a case," Frank offered. "He wouldn't be allowed to talk about it if there were client-attorney privileges involved."

Julie shook her head. "He would at least tell Kirsten that he was working on a case. The only thing he would hide from her would be something that would make her worry, and the thing that would worry her the most, would be something wrong with her family."

"I still think I'm going to get to the bottom of it," Kaitlin said, crossing her arms over her chest and smiling over at Colin.

"From Newport?"

Kaitlin laughed. "You think I'm done with Taylor and Ryan? Please. Getting them to hook up is the easy part. But it's Taylor and Ryan. They're going to screw it up. And that's when they're really going to need me."

Frank shook his head as he sped up to pass the car in front of them. "God help them both."


	13. Chapter 13: One week later

Thanks once again for all the reviews. I've got this story written out to the end now and am simply reviewing the next chapters, so no worries about it being abandonned. Enjoy this chapter while I work on the next.

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* * *

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**Chapter 13: One week later**

"You typed that word already."

Ryan looked up from his computer screen. He gave his roommate only a quick glance before focussing on his monitor, and seeing the word "later" repeated five times. He closed the document without saving it and let his head drop to the desk.

"You all right?"

"Sure," he mumbled without raising his head.

"You don't really look all right."

"Don't I though?"

"What's wrong? I thought you were done your exams. You should be swimming now, dude."

Ryan sighed and lifted his head to look at Timothy. "I don't know."

"It's that girl you brought here the other week, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Who is she?"

"Ex-girlfriend."

Timothy got up and moved around the room, gathering clothes to stuff in his backpack. "How long have you guys been broken up?"

"I'm not really sure."

"You're not sure?"

"We didn't exactly break up. We kind of just… parted, I guess."

"So, she's really just your girlfriend?"

"No."

Timothy sighed, his hand on the doorknob and his backpack hanging from his arm. "Dude. Call Seth or something. Just… don't wallow. There's a difference between brooding and wallowing, and you're on the wrong side right now."

He left before Ryan could protest.

Ryan stayed at his desk, staring at his phone and trying to decide if calling Seth really was a good idea or not. Surely Seth would have something to say about the situation—Seth had something to say about every situation—but that didn't mean it would be something Ryan would want to hear.

Seth had been on cloud nine since Summer had accepted his wedding proposal. He kept spewing about romance and high school destinies and more things than Ryan could follow when he was trying to understand the mumbling.

Maybe calling Seth wasn't a good idea.

Before he could make up his mind, however, his phone rang. Ryan jumped back. He gave a quizzical look at the caller ID before bringing the telephone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Ryan, hey, it's Kirsten."

"Hey. How's it going?"

"Good. Listen, you forgot your watch when you were here. Or, maybe it was kidnapped because I found it in Sophie's room. But either way, your watch is here."

"Oh, great. Um… so…"

"Sandy's going to be on campus this afternoon to wrap things up. If you can meet him outside his office, he can just pass it over to you. Or it can wait. I mean, you've already gone a week without it and you're going to be moving back for the summer in a few days, but still… If you wanted to see Sandy."

"If I wanted to see Sandy?"

"Well he hasn't really been around here much. So if you wanted to see him, you could."

"Are you all right?"

"Sure," Kirsten sighed. "I'm just sorry I didn't notice Sophie had taken your watch."

"Don't worry about it. Listen, I do have a few meetings at this new job to wrap up. I figured I'd get those done before moving back home because this is closer. So, I guess I can meet San—" Ryan's voice faded as he heard someone in the background asking about vegetables and pans. "Who's that?"

"Huh?"

"Who's that in the room with you?"

"Oh, you know…" Kirsten's voice fluttered. "Taylor. So you're okay with Sandy bringing the wa—"

"Taylor?"

"Yeah?"

"My Taylor?"

"What did you just say?"

Ryan coughed. "What is Taylor still doing there?"

"She didn't have anywhere else to go. I figured we might as well let her stay here for a little while longer while she figures it out rather than have her running off to find the first guy who offers her a bus token."

"You're not in the same room as her anymore, are you?"

"No. I'm in the living room. Listen, Ryan, don't worry about it. Taylor's fine, she's just finding herself a little."

"She was the only girl who knew herself when we were in high school." Ryan sighed. "How is it that now she can't find herself?"

"She was a completely different person in high school. You know that. Now don't worry about Taylor. You're done school. Settle your job, come home to celebrate, and we'll just see what happens from there."

"Kirsten…"

"Ryan, the last time you and Taylor had a break up it set you back badly. I don't want to see that happen to you again."

"It wasn't about that the last time," Ryan sighed again.

"Well, what was it about then?"

"I just… It was a bad time."

"Exactly and I don't want you to—"

"It wasn't Taylor's fault."

"I know that, sweetie. It was no one's fault. I'm just saying that I don't want you two to go back to where you were."

"Tell Sandy I'll meet him outside his office tomorrow morning."

"Ryan, I didn't mean to—"

"I'll talk to you later, Kirsten."

* * *

"I didn't take his watch," Taylor immediately said when Kirsten returned to the kitchen.

"What?"

"I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation, which I'm guessing is why you left the room. Anyway, I didn't take his watch so he would come back or anything. I'm not doing that anymore."

"I know," Kirsten smiled and patted Taylor's shoulder. "I meant Sophie probably kidnapped it. She has a habit of stealing things from her brothers to try to get them to stay longer. Usually she chooses more wisely and hides their keys or cell phones so they really can't leave."

"Oh." Taylor sighed. "I bet I did that as a kid."

"I'm sure you had many creative ways of getting what you wanted. Most children do. Especially when they don't have siblings."

"But I wasn't spoiled."

Kirsten smiled as she cut some peppers. "I know Taylor; I've met your mother."

"I just want you to know that I'm not this horrible person who only thinks about herself. I don't know what Ryan told you or Seth or Sandy or—"

"Taylor, stop. Ryan told me what happened, but only after I guessed, and he didn't tell anyone else. Seth and Summer have no idea why you two broke up. No one knows."

Taylor looked down at her hands, fiddling with the towel she held. "You probably think I'm a horrible person, don't you?"

"I don't."

"Oh, come on, Kirsten. Even you have to be able to get mad sometimes, and this is something to get mad about."

"Taylor—"

"But I'm not a horrible person, and I'm not terrible and I didn't—"

"Taylor, the only reason I guessed, is because I was in the same situation once."

"What?"

Kirsten sighed as she grabbed Taylor's hand and led her to have a seat at the kitchen table. "I had an abortion when I was young and getting ready to head off to university."

"You?"

"Yes. I had an abortion and broke up with Jimmy and met Sandy and Julie got pregnant and… here we are today, I suppose."

"That must have been so hard for you," Taylor said, reaching out a hand to pat Kirsten's.

"As hard as it must have been for you."

"It wasn't," Taylor said with a determined shake of her head.

Kirsten smiled sympathetically. "Taylor, even if you try to pretend that having an abortion didn't have an effect on you, you have to realise that—"

"No, I… God, losing that baby—that baby that belonged to me and Ryan—that had a definite effect on me. But I didn't have an abortion."

"What?" Kirsten asked, her back straightening quickly.

"I told Ryan I was thinking about it because I wanted to give him an out. I wanted him to make his own decision about whether or not he wanted to be a father. And he acted upset, so I figured he'd be okay with me keeping the baby, but before I could tell him the truth, I lost the child. I tried to tell him that I lost the baby, but he didn't look like he believed me and so I just left. He didn't want to believe me; what was the point of trying to convince him?"

"Taylor…"

"He probably never would have forgiven me even if he knew that I really had lost the baby."

"Taylor, didn't you think of what Ryan must be feeling, considering everything that happened with Theresa?"

"Theresa?"

Kirsten's eyes widened. "You know about Theresa, right?"

"Theresa Ryan's childhood friend who comes up in conversation every once in a while? His prom date?"

"Theresa Ryan's childhood friend who he slept with, thought he got pregnant, went back to Chino to take care of, and then who lied to him about having a miscarriage so he would come back to Sandy and me."

"Oh." Taylor nodded one hard, quick bob of the head. "No, I guess I didn't know about that Theresa."

Kirsten reached over and took hold of Taylor's hands. "Sweetie, I have a feeling that Ryan didn't so much react to you as to the familiarity of the situation. To the fact that the last time someone told him they were having a miscarriage, it was just so he would leave and take care of himself. Which you have to admit isn't actually all that different from what you did here."

"I guess I would have freaked too if I were him. But he never told me…"

"It's Ryan," Kirsten shrugged. "He doesn't really tell anyone."

"And if I hadn't been so paranoid that he was just waiting for an excuse to hate me and would have taken the time to realise that he was still around, I would have had time to explain and so would he and we would probably still be together all happy and perfect. Damn me."

"But instead you went to France, Ryan went to Berkeley, and somehow, you both found each other again."

"Oh, we're not back together or anything," Taylor hurried to explain.

"Maybe not," Kirsten shrugged as she rose from her chair. "But you aren't exactly apart either."

* * *

"So what are you going to do next?" Seth asked he dragged Summer's shopping bags through the front doors. She had told him it was fortuitous that they meet at the entrance of the building just as she was arriving. From the way his muscles were already screaming, Seth wasn't so sure he agreed.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, now that you're done with GEORGE and had a week to settle, what are you going to do?"

"Well I'm going to live with you," Summer shrugged.

"And then?"

"And then what?"

"Well," Summer sighed and looked around her. "I'm going to redecorate first, because this just isn't going to work."

"Because you think we're going to be staying here?"

"What?"

"Summer, we talked about this."

"I'm still in ten different time zones, Cohen," Summer whined her familiar excuse as she moved over to the kitchen and stuck her head in the refrigerator. "I'm not all here. Explain."

"We talked about how I was just staying here while you were with GEORGE and that we would see when you were done where you wanted to find a job and relocate based on that. Remember?"

"God. I'm barely off work one week and you're already hounding me to find a job."

"I'm not hounding you; I just want to know what your plan is." Seth moved toward her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. "If your plan is to lay low for a couple of months and just take care of me and every one of my little needs, well that's fantastic. But if you're looking for a job and we're going to have to move in a little while, then there really isn't any point to you redecorating this dump when we're going to be leaving so soon."

Summer looked up at him with wide eyes, and then buried her head against his chest. "I don't know what the plan is. I'm tired and I'm sad that I left GEORGE and I'm happy that I'm here and I just want to decompress for a little while longer before I take any big decisions."

"Then that is what we'll do." He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then went back to her bags to drag them into the bedroom.

"You love me, right, Cohen?" Summer called after him.

"I sure do."

"And you'll love me no matter what, right?"

He smiled and moved back toward her. "I loved you when you hated me. I loved you when you were chasing me. I loved you when you weren't sure about me. I loved you when you tried to pretend you didn't love me. I loved you when you were angry, when you were sad, when you changed your entire lifestyle to forget about Marissa, and when you left me so you could save the world—though not in the super hero way that would have been totally cool. I even loved you when you refused to marry me and when you asked me to take care of your rabbit for a few years—"

"Our rabbit," Summer interrupted.

"Our rabbit," Seth agreed. "There is nothing that would stop me from loving you. Not even when you become insecure and distant for reasons I don't understand."

"Good," Summer told him with a hard, determined nod.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find somewhere in the bedroom for that mall of stuff you bought today."

"No," Summer said, pulling on his shirt to keep him near her.

"Summer…"

"Those are heavy, and you need your strength for something else."

"You haven't already started buying new furniture, have you?" Seth asked with a groan.

"No, but I don't think you're done welcoming me back yet." She smiled a grin that left him no doubt about what she wanted.

"Now that, I can do."

* * *

"Sandy? Sandy!"

Sandy's head jerked up at the sound of his name, and he looked around a few times before he found Ryan only a few feet away, staring at him with a worried look on his face.

"Hey, kid. Here's your watch."

Ryan accepted it with a nod but kept his eyes on Sandy.

"Are you okay?"

"Me? Sure, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because I called your name about ten times before you heard me and you look like you're about to run away at the first loud noise that might come along."

"Hmm. That's interesting."

"Sandy."

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

Sandy sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "Nothing. Really, there's nothing wrong."

Ryan's eyes first narrowed, then suddenly widened with fear. "Is this about Taylor? If there's something wrong with Taylor, or if you just heard about something that had been wrong with Taylor, you should tell me. You should tell me now."

"Nothing's wrong with Taylor. But I'm happy to see you're completely over her."

"Yeah, Seth and Kirsten are already all over that, I don't need you working that angle as well."

Sandy raised his hands up. "Fine. I was just pointing out what I noticed."

"And so was I. So what's wrong?"

"It's a family thing."

"I'm not family?"

"No, not like that," Sandy quickly answered, reaching out to rest a hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Of course you're family, Ryan. But I meant it was a grown-up family thing. I wouldn't talk to Seth about this either."

"Who are you going to talk to? You obviously don't feel like you can go to Kirsten about this, and you can't talk to Seth about anything serious, really. Where else are you going to go? Julie?"

Sandy chuckled and shook his head. "I shouldn't be bringing you into this."

"It's about Hailey, isn't it? You've always tried to protect Kirsten from what happens to her family, and Hailey's all she has left. I may not have spent a lot of time with Kirsten's sister, but I spent enough to know that only she could cause this much trouble. Has this got anything to do with her?"

"When the hell did you get so perceptive?" Sandy shook his head and let out a big sigh. "It's really the only thing I can't talk to Kirsten about."

"She's in trouble?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Someone's in trouble, and it's the nearest I've come to finding Hailey since she stopped talking to us a year ago."

Ryan started back. "Why did she stop talking to you?"

"It's Hailey," Sandy shrugged. "She just falls off the map sometimes, and you have to wait until she decides to appear again."

"Except this time it's worrying you."

"This time it's really worrying me," Sandy agreed.

"Anything I can do?"

"Just don't let on that you know anything. And be ready for me to call, because now that you know, you're the only one I can talk to about these things."

"All right, I'll do that."

"Good." Sandy patted Ryan on the back as he moved toward the door. "Listen, I'm going to be late for a meeting with the Dean."

"Sure, hey, Taylor didn't mention how long she was going to be around or why or—"

"I don't have time to worry about Hailey and you, Ryan, when this is something you can easily fix. Talk to Taylor and work it out. You've been better in the few days you guys were stuck together because of this Kaitlin thing than the entire time you were apart. Whatever happened, you guys can find a way to work it out."

"I don't know." Ryan shrugged. "It just feels like I'm falling into the same plotline over and over again, and Taylor doesn't look like she's offering me an out from that."

Sandy laughed and nodded at a few students as they walked by. "As far as I remember, she's the only girl you dated that didn't require you punching someone out. That's a start right?"

Ryan's eyebrows rose and he offered a shaky nod, but had no answer for Sandy. The man offered once last wave before ducking into his classroom, and Ryan headed back to his dorm, shaking his head and hoping that something useful would drop out

* * *

"Kaitlin," Frank all but growled as he walked into the living room.

"I didn't do it," the girl protested without looking up from her book.

"You don't even know what I'm about to say."

"I haven't done anything lately. I've been studying, taking exams and I went on one date with Colin. That's it. There's nothing you can accuse me of unless you want to dig up something from way too long ago for me to still be on the hook."

"Where's your mother?" Frank asked as he stretched his neck to see into the kitchen.

"Out. She's grabbing groceries and supper. Why?"

"I can't find her ring. Are you sure you didn't take it again just to make me panic?"

Kaitlin smiled as she rose from where she'd been sitting on the floor. "I told you I had a reason for taking it the first time. Ryan would never have believed I was in trouble unless I brought proof, and he would never have met up with Taylor unless he thought it was absolutely necessary. Those two are pathetic without each other. I don't see why you aren't happy that I'm trying to help."

"The ring."

Kaitlin reached up in the bookcase until her hand grasped the ring box behind a row of dusty paperbacks.

"If you stopped changing your hiding place every five minutes, you wouldn't have this problem."

"If your mother wasn't so damn curious," Frank told her as he snatch the ring from her fingers, "I wouldn't have to hide it."

"She's just trying to figure out what you're hiding," Kaitlin shrugged. "She's trying to decide whether or not you know about her secret."

"What's her secret?" Frank asked as he leaned in.

"If I'm keeping yours, it's only fair that I keep hers."

"What's fair would be if you—"

"Daddy!" the pair heard Kevin yell as the door to the house flew open.

Frank fumbled with the ring until he could get it in his pocket, then turned warning eyes to Kaitlin.

"We're home," Kevin announced as he jumped on his father.

"I see that."

"What were you and Kaitlin doing?" he asked.

Kaitlin smiled and raised an eyebrow to Frank.

"Waiting for you," the man finally answered as he hoisted his son higher on his hip. "Let's go see if your mom needs help with the groceries."

Kaitlin shook her head as she watched them leave the room. "As soon as I'm done with Ryan and Taylor, those two are next." She narrowed her eyes at her book and flipped to the next page. "I wonder if Colin can help…"


	14. Chapter 14: Doubts in me

Thanks again for all the reviews. Everyone's so nice!

Here's the next chapter with a few more characters clueing in.

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* * *

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**Chapter 14: Doubts in me**

It was always that empty spot that got her. It was always that empty spot that annoyed her and that she knew, even before submitting any of her applications, would be the real problem. She had no references.

Summer had been trying to find a job for what felt like forever. She had been trying everything she could think of, everything she'd read, and everything Taylor suggested. Nothing was working.

There was no way anyone was going to hire her as a permanent employee if she didn't have a single reference, and there was no way she was going to get a reference until her name was cleared with GEORGE. She might get hired for retail or culinary work, but she wasn't looking to start her professional life in either of those professions, and neither presented the option of bridging into the world she was looking to make her future.

And so she remained without work. Seth didn't mind. Seth didn't even know she was looking for a job. She'd told him that she was taking time to relax after the stress of GEORGE, and she'd planned on telling him that she was relaxing until she found a job and didn't have to pretend everything was fine anymore.

"Sarah! I didn't know you'd be here today."

Summer hid the application she'd been filling out in her purse as she smiled over at Samantha.

"I've been here every day to go to lunch with Seth. You'd think this would stop being a surprise for you. Or at least, that you would start to get my name right."

"I'm sorry; did I get your name wrong again?"

"Yeah, you did, skank."

"What did you just—"

"Ladies," Seth called with a smile as he moved around the room. He walked over to Summer and let a kiss drop on her head. "Sorry I'm late. Rough meeting. But I'm here now and I'm all yours. What's your poison?"

Summer shrugged. "I figured we'd just do burgers and fries. A quick meal so that you can get back here before you get in trouble."

"That's a good idea. I do have another meeting this afternoon."

"There you— Oh, excuse me." Summer lifted her finger and moved away from Seth as she grabbed her ringing cell phone. "Hello?"

Seth smiled as he watched her walk to the end of the room. He picked up a few sketches from his desk and moved them around, sighing at what he saw.

"So, how was the meeting?" Samantha asked him.

"It was great."

"And the job?"

"Mine if I want it." Seth shrugged.

"If you want it?" Samantha laughed. "Seth, this has been your dream job since you joined this team. You've been drooling over the entertainment account since your first day and you almost cried you were so happy when you heard it was in Berkeley. What's this shrug?"

Seth sighed. She was right. The entertainment account was all he'd dreamed of since he'd joined the company. He'd simply never told Summer because he didn't want it to be another obstacle in their relationship. God knew, he'd caused enough of those already.

When she'd left for her last year with GEORGE, they had agreed that they wouldn't make any permanent decisions until they were together and could discuss what they both wanted. Seth would be lying if he said that he didn't want Berkeley and the opportunity to design posters and graphics for some of the hottest movies coming out of Hollywood, but it wasn't the most important thing at the moment.

"I just…" He shrugged again, shaking his thoughts away. "I'm not sure it's what I want anymore."

"You're not sure it's what you want anymore, or you're not sure it's what Summer wants."

"I didn't—"

"And what Summer wants, Summer gets."

"Hey, knock it off. It's not like that. I've waited my whole life to ask Summer to marry me. That's the big dream. And I did it and she said yes. Everything else was a secondary dream to that. I don't care what happens as long as we walk down that aisle."

"Seth, stop being ridiculous. You have to go to work every day whether or not you marry Summer, and you're going to need a place to work after she divorces your ass, so you might as well be going somewhere you want to be, don't you think?"

"All I want is Summer."

"Listen." Samantha moved toward him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You were faithful to her when she left you and went around the country, not caring what that would do to you. And then she didn't just do it for one year, she stayed away year and year again. Don't you think you should get to do what you want for once instead of staying behind and waiting for her to come back and tell you what you should be doing?"

"I think that Summer has as much a right as I do to find a career that will make her happy, and if that career isn't in Berkeley, I'm not going to force her to relocate somewhere where she's going to be miserable."

"But it's fine if you're miserable?"

"I'm with Summer." Seth's smile widened. "How could I possibly be miserable?"

"Cohen?" Summer called from across the room. She waved her closed phone at him and watched as he patted Samantha on the arm and jogged across the room to grab her hand and head out to the restaurant.

"Everything okay?" he asked, nodding his head toward her phone.

"Everything's fine." Summer smiled.

* * *

"Everything is not fine."

"Don't panic. This doesn't mean anything. So I'm staying at the Cohen's. So what? It's not like I'm still in love with Ryan. It's not like I think he's still in love with me. It's not like I'm being delusional about this or anything. Why, did Ryan talk to you about this?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Taylor?"

Taylor paused as she looked under the kitchen table. "What do you think I'm talking about, Summer?"

"I don't care. I called you about my problem, Taylor, not yours."

"What's your problem?"

Summer growled on her end of the telephone line. "My problem is that I have to get all the way to New York to talk about my involvement with GEORGE and prove that I haven't done anything wrong, without Seth knowing and without encouraging that stupid tall skank he works with who wants to break us up."

"You don't know that she's trying to break you up. You always think people are after Seth."

"I'm sorry; was I wrong about you?"

Taylor sighed. "It was a phase."

"Until I smacked you out of it. What is it with girls? He's Cohen. He was nothing before I met him. No one knew he existed, except maybe Chino, and then all of a sudden he's God's gift."

"Is your problem about Seth?"

"The problem is that I have to prove that I didn't do anything wrong and I have no way of doing that."

"You don't have to prove you didn't do anything wrong," Taylor scoffed. "That's not how it works. Innocent until proven guilty, Summer. La responsabilité de la preuve est dans les mains de l'accuseur."

"Huh?"

"They have to prove that you're guilty. You don't have to prove anything. Unless of course you want to prove they're guilty of something."

Summer's eyes widened as she let Taylor's words sink in. "Wait, you're right."

"I know."

"I just have to prove Matthew's guilty of lying."

"No, Summer, you don't have to prove anything. Remember? La responsabilité de—"

"Oh, I am going to kick his ass."

Summer hung up before Taylor could interrupt her again.

"Oh no," Taylor said as she stared at her phone. She sat there watching it until it suddenly rung again. "Summer? I didn't mean—"

"Save it Townsend, my mind's made up. I just wanted to tell you not to tell Seth. He doesn't know anything about the GEORGE trouble, and he really doesn't need to. GEORGE kept us apart for long enough, I'm not letting it rain down on Seth's engagement parade as well."

"Summer, I really think you should— Ow."

"What ow?"

"I just bumped my head on the kitchen table when I was getting out from under it," Taylor whined.

"Why are you under the kitchen table?"

"Apparently Sophie wasn't kidding when she said she was good at hide and seek. I've been looking for her over an hour."

"The Cohens are very stealth."

"Please don't make me listen to a story about Camp Takahoe."

"I can't. I have a plane to catch. I'll talk to you later."

"Be careful, Summer."

"Thanks, and good luck. Check on the top shelf of the workbench in the garage."

"On the…"

Summer hung up before Taylor could ask anything more.

"Why would they even have a workbench?" she asked herself as she moved out of the room. Taylor sighed as she made her way toward the garage. "Maybe New York isn't such a bad idea."

* * *

"This chick is nasty."

Ryan scrunched his eyebrows at his roommate and walked further into the room to see what he was reading. He sighed when he saw Taylor's blog on his computer monitor.

"Why are you reading that? Why are you even here? You miss half the school year but hang around when finals are done?"

"I'm waiting for a ride out of here tonight. Going to Mexico. Anyway, I was looking for interesting links in your favourites and I thought I had finally found something good like porn or whatever on your computer, but then I find out it's this girl's blog. It has its dirty parts, though."

"I don't know. I've never read it."

"Then why is it in your favourites?"

Ryan moved around the room and gathered his clothes for a trip to the gym. "I don't know. Kaitlin must have put it there when she was messing around with my computer last week."

"The hot girl?"

"One of them."

"Nice."

"Sure."

"Anyway," Charlie shrugged. "You should read this. This is girl is trippy. She is into some weird stuff. I mean, ignore the part about the miscarriage and all that, because it's kind of boring, but—"

Ryan froze. "What did you just say?"

"It's totally boring when she goes on and on about her miscarriage and how it's not her ex's fault if they broke up but hers, and all this crap, but there are some really good parts. I mean, if you read about how the ex got her pregnant, it's totally—"

"Okay, enough, off the computer," Ryan pushed Thomas away from his computer and let his eyes travel the screen.

"She really miscarried…" he whispered to himself, letting his head drop down to the desk.

He stayed with his head down against his desk until the ringing of his cell phone was more than he could bear. He pulled the phone to his ear without raising his head.

"Hello?"

"Ryan!"

"Kaitlin?"

"Yeah. I was wondering if I could talk to Taylor for a second."

"Then why did you call me? Taylor has her own cell phone, and you know that."

"She's always on it. I keep getting sent straight to voice mail and I kind of have to talk to her."

"What about?"

"It's a girl thing, Ryan. I really need to talk to her and I figured you guys would still be together since I hear she's staying at the Cohen's and obviously you wouldn't just abandon her when she travelled across the country just because you asked her to, right? I mean, it's not just any girl who would—"

Ryan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "How's the baby, Kaitlin?"

"What?"

"You lied to me and you lied to Taylor."

"Ryan, I'm not—"

"Don't play innocent. I haven't bought that act since you showed up at the Cohen's front door looking like an extra for the junior edition of Girls Gone Wild." He rose from his chair and started to pace until he realised there wasn't enough room for pacing. He sat on his bed.

"Jeez, Ryan, tell me how you really feel."

"Listen, I made a mistake breaking up with Taylor and the last thing I need is you getting mixed up in it and confusing me even more."

Kaitlin sighed. "I got bored, started reading Taylor's blog and realised just how much she really missed you. I was trying to do a little good, Ryan. God, give me a break."

"How could none of us have known? How could none of us have read this?" Ryan asked dropping his head against his hand.

"Taylor warned all of you about her blog. I think the threat of what she could possibly be writing in there was too much for you guys. I mean, even Seth doesn't want to know as much about you as Taylor has the potential of writing. Plus, I think you were all scared that she was going to reveal something about that weird Dean guy who hated you and Marissa."

"She still put it out there."

Kaitlin sighed and Ryan could imagine her rolling her eyes impatiently on the other end of the line. "She obviously wanted to get caught, Ryan. It's Taylor; she has a completely different way from yours at not being good with the words, but it's still there. She didn't know how to say it and she didn't want to make you feel bad when making her feel bad was getting her by. I guess part of her still wanted you guys to know, though."

Ryan took a deep breath as his eyes travelled the room. He let himself drop back until he lay flat on his bed.

"Are you done your finals?"

"Yeah. I finished yesterday. Piece of cake."

"Does your mother know you're not married or pregnant?" Ryan asked as he moved toward his suitcase again.

"She's known since about a day after she found out I was."

He sighed. "You were trying to help?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's great, since now, you're going to help whether you want to or not."

* * *

"Is it a surprise vacation?" Kirsten asked from the doorway as she watched her husband pack. He looked up at her, guilty and sad.

"I'm afraid not. I have to leave for a few days."

"And you weren't going to tell me."

"It was very sudden. I was going to leave—"

"Don't say a note," Kirsten interrupted, raising her hand. "You'll do more damage than good if you tell me that you were going to leave me a note."

"I'm sorry."

"Sandy…"

He reached out for her, pulling her against his body. "I know. I know what this looks like and I know how you must feel, but trust me when I say that I'm only trying to do what's best."

"What's best is for you to tell me, Sandy. I trust you, but you have to start trusting me."

"I do trus—"

"No. Ever since Sophie—maybe ever since I came home from rehab—you have been treating me like the least bit of bad news will be enough to make me topple. I'm not about to topple, Sandy. Tell me what's wrong."

His eyes met hers, and he watched her, knowing she was right but fearing a relapse all the same. "I think I found Hailey."

"My sister Hailey?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"Montana."

"Montana? What is she doing in Montana?"

"Not too good from what I understand."

Kirsten felt her body tighten at the confession. "Sandy…"

"I'm going to go find her. I'm going to make sure she's fine, and if she's not, I'm going to bring her right back here where we can take care of her."

"I'm coming."

"No, you're not," Sandy told her, reaching for her arm to stop her from grabbing her own clothes and adding them to his suitcase.

"She's my little sister."

"I need you to stay here and take care of our daughter."

"I need you to tell me what's going on."

Sandy sighed and shook his head. He shrugged. "Hailey fell in with the wrong guy. He's not exactly treating her well."

"He's hurting her?" Kirsten asked, tears already welling in her eyes.

"That's what I understand."

"She's been with him long?"

Sandy shrugged. "Longer than she should. Since pretty soon after she left, from what I gather."

"Why didn't she call sooner?" Kirsten moved toward the dresser in their bedroom and started pulling out clothes before Sandy could tell her not to.

"She was afraid, I guess. He told her he didn't want her to have any contact with her family at all."

"But she should have known—"

"She was scared, Kirsten." Sandy reached out and grabbed her by the forearms, pulling her to him and stopping her frantic movements. "We both know that people don't do the smartest things when they are scared."

"But it's been years, Sandy. Why would she call us now?"

"Because she's pregnant. And we both know what it's like to be scared and pregnant."

"She's pregnant," Kirsten repeated, tasting the words in her mouth.

"She is."

"When do we leave?"

* * *

"What do you mean you're going to New York?"

"What do you think I mean, Cohen?" Summer asked from the closet where she was pulling out clothes and throwing them on the bed.

"I think you're kidding because we've been apart for so long and we're finally going to be together for more than a few weeks and you wouldn't change that for the world?"

"No. I mean that I have to go to New York for a few days, because I have things to take care of. But then, I'll be back and you'll have my real ring, and everything is going to be perfect. So stop worrying."

"Who's worrying?" Seth asked as he dropped the sketches he'd been drawing and dove for Summer, tackling her awkwardly until he could turn them both and drop her to the bed. "I'm whining. There's a big difference. Do you want Ryan to explain it to you? He's pretty good at understanding what it is I'm doing."

"I don't need Ryan. I'm pretty good at telling you what you're doing too, so I feel I've got it covered."

"But you're abandoning me right aft—" Seth paused as he heard his cell phone from his front pocket. He reached for it and furrowed his brow at the number on the screen. "Hold up."

He dropped his grip from Summer and let her bounce down to the mattress that had been only a few inches beneath her. She watched him as he moved across the room with the phone to his ear.

"Hello? Mom? Tell Summer that she can't— Wait, hold up… What's going on?"

Summer's head sprung up at the concern in Seth's voice, and she moved forward until she could rest her hand against his back. She nodded her head in his direction, but he quickly shook her question away.

"Where are you going?... Why?" Seth reached out and grabbed Summer's hand when she went to move away from him. "Is she going to be all right? ... Okay, I'll get a flight tonight and be there as quickly as I can."

"Seth?" Summer asked when he broke the connection.

"I have to go home. My parents have to leave town because Hailey's in trouble and they can't reach Ryan."

"They can't reach Ryan?"

"Yeah, give me a second. There was a note on my desk at work that I picked up when I was heading out. Maybe it's a message from Ryan."

Summer watched him leave and then huffed as she took a look at the mess she'd created on their bed. She smiled as she picked up Seth's sketches of her. And he'd said he'd been working…

She rifled through his papers and paused when she found writing instead of drawings. She scanned the words quickly, pausing on the words _Berkeley_, _offer _and _entertainment_.

"Hey," Seth called as he approached the room.

Summer quickly threw the papers in her suitcase, turning to face him with a wide smile on her face.

"So the note was about Ryan. He called and said that he was going to New York to chase after Taylor."

"Why's Taylor in New York? I thought she was at your parents' house."

"I don't know. But that's where Ryan's going. Maybe you'll see him there."

Summer shrugged. "Unlikely, but maybe."

"You're sure you don't want to blow off New York and come to Berkeley to watch Sophie with me and worry about Aunt Hailey?"

"Don't use your little daughter to sway me," Summer admonished as she moved to avoid Seth's arms, reaching out for her.

"You know how much she loves her almost-sister Summer."

"Stop it, Seth."

"And she'll be so sad when I tell her that you chose to go to New York rather than spend time with her."

"You are not telling her that."

"But what will I do when she asks me where you are? I can't lie to my sister."

Summer's hands fell to her hips and she leaned her body to the left. "You lie to everyone else."

"I'm getting better with the truth, you know that."

"I'll tell you what." She moved forward until she could wrap her arms around Seth's neck and swayed them gently. "I'll go to New York and do what I have to do, and then, I will fly directly to Berkeley to meet with you."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"I suppose that's worth something."

"It is. And…" Summer said as she started moving Seth backwards until he stumbled onto the mattress. "In the meantime, we can do that thing we're really good at."

"What thing?"

"Having one last night," Summer told him, as she let herself drop on top of him and press her lips against his.

* * *

"How could you?"

Frank ducked as the spatula sailed over his head and crashed into the cupboard behind him.

"What did I do?" he asked Julie, watching her with wide eyes.

"What did you do? You took the poor girl's ring. You don't know where she got that. She might have stolen it from someone and wanted to return it and now she can't because you took it from her because she stole a bit of your money. Frank!"

"What are you talking about?" Frank asked as he dodged a fork.

"Kaitlin's ring. I saw it in your drawer when I was putting away the laundry. You took it from her."

"She gave it to me."

"Oh, I know my daughter," Julie challenged, "and she wouldn't just give a ring like that. She probably wouldn't even pawn it. It's gorgeous. She'd keep it for herself."

"Trust me. It's not what you think."

"Trust you?" Julie asked, steadying the frying pan in her hand and letting the combination of eggs, onions, cheese, peanut butter and green olives slide to the floor. "You've been in prison, Frank. The first words out of your mouth when we met were a lie. Do you really expect me just to trust you now?"

He shrugged. "I was hoping…"

"Well, you're just going to have to keep hoping. I thought you were making progress with Kaitlin and now I see this. What am I supposed to think? You're always gone; you're nervous around me; you pretend that you're working late when I know you're not… Something is going on, Frank, and if it's not you about to leave me, I don't know what it could be."

"I'm not leaving you, Julie."

"Then what is it?"

"It's… it's…" he shrugged and sighed. "It's a surprise. Can't you leave it at that? You're about to graduate and we've got the party at the Cohen's coming up, and it's a surprise. I'm not leaving you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

"Good, because I don't want you to go," Julie told him as she started to sob.

"Sweetie, are you all right?" Frank asked as he neared her. "You seem a little… emotional."

"I'm allowed to be emotional," she yelled, throwing the frying pan in his direction. "And if I am, it's all your fault."

She stormed out before he had a chance to reach her. Frank watched her leave with a confused look on his face. He stared down at the floor and scrunched his nose at Julie's meal. His eyes widened suddenly at the sight.

"Hey, mom, I have to go help—" Kaitlin paused as she took in the mess in the kitchen. "Wow, Frank, you really know how to have a good time while cooking."

"Kaitlin, you said you needed the ring to convince Ryan you were married. How did you convince him you were pregnant?"

"I stole my mom's pregnancy test."

"Which was positive…" Frank ended for her.

"Yeah. You missed it the first time because she was kind of with the Bullit. You should probably ask him for tips, because my mother pregnant, is like no other woman." She waved as she moved around him. "I'm going out with Colin. Let me know if Ryan calls. I'm kind of on stand-by to help him win Taylor back."

"Great," Frank mumbled to himself as he looked around at the mess in the room. "I might want to think about moving up that proposal."


	15. Chapter 15: Making plans

Hello again. Thanks as always for all the reviews and comments.

This chapters is a lot of exposition as we're moving really close to the end of this story, and as Kaitlin isn't in it (she's probably off scheming somewhere) I thought I'd clear something: Colin is just Kaitlin's friend. They didn't meet before the airport when she apparently decided he seemed interesting enough to rope into her game. I think all else is fairly clear?

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* * *

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**Chapter 15: Making plans**

Taylor sighed as she looked around the airport. She felt like she'd been living in these things lately. She was a traveller with no home and no family.

"Encore le vagabond," she whispered to herself.

She bit her lip as she tried not to cry and almost jumped when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it quickly, happy for the distraction.

"Hello?"

"Taylor?"

"Seth?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, listen, why are you in New York?"

Taylor looked around in confusion, searching for Seth. "How did you know I was in New York?"

"My parents are leaving town and they need someone to watch Sophie. I figured you'd be around, but apparently you're in New York."

"Oh, well, I'm here to support Summer."

"You're there to support Summer?"

"Yes. I know this trip is going to be hard on her, and I want to be here to help."

Seth sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right. It's going to be really hard on Summer. Do you want to talk about that?"

"What?"

"You know, get out your feelings about it, ask me for any advice on how to help her… Anything of that kind?"

Taylor smiled and shook her head. "You don't know why Summer is in New York, do you?"

"No idea. Why is she in New York?"

"Because," Taylor slowly stuttered as she looked around her for an explanation. "She has to be here."

"Why does she have to be there?"

"Well, if you don't know…"

"I don't know because you won't tell me."

"Well why do you think she's coming here?"

"I don't know…" Seth paused as he leaned back in his airport chair on the other side of the country. "Is she mad at me?"

"Did you do anything to make her mad?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Are you sure?" Taylor asked, shooing away a woman who tried to hand her a pamphlet.

"No… Well… She doesn't like this girl I work with, but that's not my fault. I mean since the proposal, we've been pretty good."

"Oh, yeah. Your grand romantic proposal with the apparently not so attractive ring."

Seth sprung up in his seat. "She's mad about the proposal?"

"What?"

"She's mad about the proposal and the ring, isn't she? It wasn't romantic enough for her. She lied when she told me it was fine. That wasn't my fault. I knew she was tired and I just wanted to ask her and that she be mine. I figured I'd have time for romance later on and if she wasn't happy with it she should have just told me. I mean, it's not like she has never refused one of my wedding proposals before and—"

"So, was that the only reason you called me?" Taylor interrupted. "To find out why I was in New York?"

"Oh, no. Summer wanted me to check if you two would be meeting up. She's calling me when she lands. You want me to pass on any message to her?"

"Oh, actually that would be great. Um, how about we meet for dinner. Let's say seven at this great little restaurant on Houston Avenue. It's called Martin's Meal."

"Martin's Meal on Houston at seven. Got it. She'll be there unless you hear differently."

"Great. Bye, Seth." Taylor hung up before Seth could answer. She gathered her bags and gave a determined nod to the air. "Right. Summer. No time for wallowing. Summer."

"Wait, how do I fix this thing with Sum— Taylor? Hello?" Seth growled and hung up his cell phone. He shuffled in the uncomfortable seat as he dialled another number. "Hey, man. Where you at?"

"Why does it say Prince of the Wonders on my caller ID?"

"I lost my phone. I had to borrow Timothy's."

"Seems like a fun guy."

"He has his moments."

Ryan nodded. "Summer's going to kill you, isn't she?"

"Definitely. So where are you?"

"Just checking out my room. I don't think I could have gotten a tinier room."

"Dude, you used to live in Chino and you now share a dorm room. Don't act like the spoiled brat; that's my job."

"Fine," Ryan sighed. "So what's up?"

"Martin's Meal on Houston Avenue, seven tonight."

"What about it?"

"That's where you're having your supper this evening."

"Yeah?" Ryan asked as he looked out the window of his hotel room at the parking lot below. "And am I having dinner with anyone?"

"Taylor Townsend."

"What?"

"Taylor Townsend, so whatever you're going to say, or whatever look you're going to give her, you should practice it now, because seven o'clock is not that far away."

"Taylor agreed to meet with me?" Ryan asked.

"Well, not exactly. She thinks she's meeting up with Summer, but I'm sure it will all work out when you show up."

"Summer? Summer's in New York?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Seth sighed loudly. "Because she's mad at me."

"What did you do?"

"Apparently my proposal wasn't romantic enough or something."

"Not romantic enough? Seth, the first time you asked her to marry you was in case she was pregnant and with a glow-in-the-dark ring. She was totally charmed by that even if she did have the common sense to refuse."

"She did love it. She even told me I should—"

Ryan waited for a moment, but it didn't sound like anything more was going to come. "What? She even told you what, Seth?"

"Ryan, you're a genius."

"I don't know what I just did," Ryan mumbled as he walked further into the room and away from looking down more stories than he was comfortable with.

"It doesn't matter. You just solved my problem. Thanks, buddy. Good luck with Taylor."

"I… um… Okay." Ryan mumbled as he hung up. He looked down at his watch. "Seven, huh?"

He took a deep sigh and looked up to find himself staring in the bathroom mirror. His eyes narrowed before he shook his head quickly.

"I'm not practicing any look," he told himself, as he turned off the bathroom light and made his way back to the main part of the room where the television would hopefully serve as a useful distraction for the next few hours.

* * *

"Cohen? What time am I meeting Tay—"

"He's not here."

"Hello?"

"Yeah, hi, Summer. Seth isn't here."

"Samantha?"

The girl sighed on her end of the line. "Hey, look who's finally catching up."

"Where's Seth?"

"Not here."

"But you have his phone?" Summer swerved to miss bumping into someone she didn't recognize. The person didn't stop to apologize or make sure she was all right and Summer rolled her eyes at the slight though it was probably mostly her fault. "Why?"

"Why do you think I have his phone?"

"Because he's an ass and he forgot it at work before he left for the airport."

"He didn't forget it. He just couldn't find it."

"Ass."

"Hey, great relationship you two have going on there."

"Thanks. Do you know how I can—"

"I'm actually quite busy right now, Sara," Samantha told her as she twiddled with a few of the pencils she'd found on Seth's desk while hunting for anything interesting. "So, I'm sorry you lost your boyfriend, but try satisfying him if you want to—"

"That's great, skank. Listen. You sound like someone who will be relatively honest with me. Do you know anything about an entertainment contract and Seth?"

"You mean the contract that he's wanted since before he started working here and would bring him to live closer to his family which he's been wanting just about forever now but which he refuses to sign in case his precious princess decides she wants to live somewhere other than Berkeley? No. Never heard of it."

She hung up before Summer could say anything else.

"What are you doing, Seth?" Summer mumbled to herself and her cell phone.

"Seth? Summerbear I love the sea otter as much as you do, but it is not the time to worry about him. Your future is the one at stake, and we have to take care of that before we do anything more."

Summer shook her head, not even slightly surprised that Che had somehow found her in the crowd when she barely knew where she was. "No, Seth's future is at stake. He's refusing job offers because he's worried I won't want to follow him. Screw this. If I can't find a job, Seth can't worry. Who cares about my reputation."

"You do, Summer," Che told her as he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in front of him before she could leave the room. "You need one conversation with Seth to fix this. That can wait. Clear your name first, and then you fix this with Seth and tell him that you've got such good recommendations that you'll be able to find a job wherever he's working."

"Right." Summer nodded absent-mindedly, and suddenly looked up at Che. "What are you doing here, Che?"

"I'm here to help."

"How did you know I needed help?"

"Jessica called me," he told her, waving over to Jessica who stood in the corner. Jessica waved shyly.

Summer blinked, trying to remind herself that she was once again in a hotel full of GEORGE volunteers and not alone with Seth in a comfortably-climated area of the world.

"How do you know Jessica?"

"We met at a rally protesting the use of animals as comedic distractions in sitcoms. They'll use any animals they can get their hands on these TV people. Dogs, cats, snakes, rabbits… It's just not right."

"Okay…"

"Meanwhile," Jessica said as she moved forward to stand closer to the pair. "You're up tomorrow in front of the board to defend yourself, and we have to get you ready."

"Right. Well, I was talking to my friend Taylor, and she made me realise that I am innocent until proven guilty. And there is no proof because I'm not guilty."

"But you know Matthew…" Jessica protested.

"Which I do," Summer answered, pointing her finger at the girl. "So I thought that it would probably be even easier just to prove that Matthew isn't innocent."

"You think he's guilty of something?"

"If someone is," Summer shrugged, "it's Matthew."

Che smiled and nodded his head. "We have a mission."

"Don't say mission," Summer warned with a roll of her eyes.

* * *

"Are we playing hide and seek?" Sophie asked as she looked over her brother's shoulder.

"What?"

"Who's hiding?"

"No one's hiding." Seth's brow scrunched in confusion. His face suddenly softened as he watched his sister staring up at him with wide, eager eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not being much fun, am I?"

"Nope," Sophie told him with a shake of the head.

"And Ryan is totally your favourite brother right now, isn't he?"

"Yep." She nodded.

"All right, saving my relationship with Summer is on hold until your bedtime. You, little lady, are my priority for the rest of the afternoon. What would you like to do?"

"I don't know." Sophie shrugged. "What's wrong with Summer?"

"She's mad at me," Seth sighed as he took his sister's hand and led her to the living room.

"What did you do?"

"Now why do you have to assume that I was the one who did something wrong?"

"Because Summer told me that she's always right and you're always wrong in the relationship and that I should remember that when I'm in a relationship because even if I date a big dork who listens to whiny rock and likes animé, that he might really be a sweet and romantic guy on the inside and my Prince Charming."

"Summer told you all that?"

"Yeah. She's said it a lot. I know it by heart."

"I see that," Seth chuckled. "Well, apparently I wasn't as sweet and romantic as she made me out to be, so now she's mad at me."

"What happened?"

"I'm not quite sure."

Sophie shrugged. "How are you going to fix it?"

"By going back a few years," Seth sighed as he let his eyes wander the room.

"And you're looking for that?"

"No. See, a long time ago, I gave Summer a ring, and she gave it back to me, telling me that I should give it to her again some day. I'm just not quite sure where that ring ended up when we packed all our stuff and moved to Berkley."

"So you want to find your old ring to give it to Summer?"

"That's right."

"Seth," Sophie told him with a deep sigh, placing her hand on his knee. "I know Summer is your girlfriend and you've known her longer than I have, but I have to tell you, I don't think Summer wants an old ring. I think Summer wants a new ring."

"I think she wants this old ring. But I'll tell you what. After we've found the old ring, we'll go shopping together for a new one. How does that sound?"

"I'm a really good finder," Sophie told him with a determined nod.

"I know. But this afternoon is all about you, remember?"

"I only have one sister, Seth. Don't screw that up."

Seth laughed as he helped Sophie off the sofa. "What else has Summer been telling you?"

* * *

"Okay, well by—" Kirsten started back at the dial tone that came over the line. "Okay…"

"Julie?" Sandy asked as he walked out of the bathroom and into their room.

"Who else?"

"What's going on now?"

"She had a breakdown. Apparently the kitchen suffered, and a little of Frank's head if the frying pan made any contact."

"Julie was handing a frying pan?"

"She was making herself a peanut butter omelette."

Sandy's mouth scrunched in distaste. "She was making what?"

"Peanut butter omelette?"

"Is she pregnant?"

Kirsten shrugged and looked away.

"Oh, honey, you're a horrible liar."

"That's why I didn't say anything."

"Is that why she came to see us?" Sandy asked as he took a seat next to his wife on the hotel bed.

"That, and she's nervous because she thinks Frank is pulling away. Apparently he hasn't been himself lately, and Julie is convinced he's about to end things with her. She doesn't want to raise this child alone. She was so afraid she would have to raise Kevin alone, and so relieved when she didn't have to…"

"Well, if it makes anything better, Frank is only being distant because he's nervous about asking her to marry him."

"Marry him?" Kirsten asked with wide eyes.

"Apparently."

"Wow."

"That's right. No meddling or matchmaking required on your part."

"That's good, because I'm a little preoccupied here." Kirsten rose from the bed and patted her thighs. "Are we going?"

"Not until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Sandy, we don't know what could happen in a day. She might not be there tomorrow. She might—"

"Tomorrow," Sandy told her, pulling his wife down so she would sit next to him again and he could wrap his arm around her, "when he's going to be at work and I can get Hailey out of there without risking him hurting her because I show up. I'm going to talk to him, but I don't want to let him use her as ransom. Getting Hailey out safely is first priority."

"Okay," Kirsten slowly relented.

"Everything's going to be fine, you know."

"I'll know tomorrow," she answered, with a tight smile.

"Then let's go to bed. It'll bring tomorrow that much more quickly."

They shuffled under the covers until they were holding on to each other and offering strength where the other was lacking.

"What do you think the kids are doing? I mean, Seth with Sophie and Ryan running off to New York."

"Huh," Sandy huffed as he tightened his grip on his wife. "Hailey first, then we can worry about those other ones."


	16. Chapter 16: Fix this

Thanks once again for all the reviews and comments. I love it!

I know nothing about law, and so it's a total cheat that all the legal stuff will be happening behind the scenes and kept to a minimum in both this and the next chapter. Also, let's face it, there's really no reason for Che to be here other than the fact that I think he's adorable and wanted to bring him back.

There's only one more chapter and an epilogue after this, so resolutions, they are a coming.

**

* * *

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**Chapter 16: Fix this**

"You should have called me."

Hailey jumped back at the sound of the voice. Her face softened and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

"I was hoping you wouldn't find out," she told Kirsten. "I guess I should have known better when it came to you and Sandy, right?"

"Hailey—"

"I know; I know… You can't deny I was always good at screwing up."

"But I never feared for your safety before." Kirsten moved forward until she could pull her little sister into a hug. "Are you okay?"

Hailey nodded weekly. "Now."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Almost since I came back from Japan," Hailey shrugged.

"Sweetie…"

Hailey shrugged. "I didn't know what to do. The company crashed and burned and I felt like a failure again. I didn't want to come home licking my wounds, especially if I couldn't ask dad for more money and would have to ask you after everything you've done for me. I just kind of got stuck in this situation and didn't see any point in getting myself out."

"I should have come after you. I should have looked for you," Kirsten told her as she moved them toward one of the double beds in the hotel room.

"You couldn't have. You couldn't have known you had to. I would go missing all the time. There was no telling that this was different."

Kirsten shook her head, but couldn't find the words or the voice to say anything more.

"So, what exactly is Sandy doing right now?" Hailey finally asked, her eyes tracing patterns in the carpet beneath them rather than try to make contact with Kirsten's gaze.

"He had a friend who works here. He wanted to be there when they where talking to Nick this first time. From what Sandy says though, you have some neighbours that are willing to testify about what they've seen and heard. He doesn't think you'll even have to stay around to get this guy behind bars."

"That's good." Hailey nodded. "We always did have really good neighbours."

"So why didn't you go to one of them?"

Hailey shrugged. "I guess I was just having a little trouble admitting that I still couldn't make it on my own.I didn't want to have to ask anyone for help."

"And now?" Kirsten asked. "What made you change your mind?"

"Now," Hailey told her with a smile as she passed a hand over her stomach. "Now, I'm not on my own, and I didn't have just me to take care of."

"You're…"

"Four months."

"Sandy told me, but hearing it from you… I'm going to be an aunt. This child is going to be spoiled rotten."

Hailey shrugged. "I suppose it's better than him or her having an aunt who shows up at random moments and trashes the house."

"Well, I probably won't be known as cool aunt Kirsten, but I'll make my mark. I've learned to bake, you know. This child will be chubby."

"I think I'd rather you be a bad influence than make my child eat your cooking."

Kirsten smiled at her sister and shook her head.

"So how are your kids?" Hailey asked as she made herself comfortable.

"How? I barely know where my kids are."

"Do tell…"

* * *

"Does it really have to be this elaborate?" Summer asked as she looked over the papers. "Besides, where are we going to get a grappling hook, a pacemaker and a ferret?"

"I have two of those three," Che told her.

"That's frightening."

"But useful."

"Right, I have to agree with Summer," Jess interrupted. "While this plan sounds nice and elaborate, there are other ways to do this."

"Like?" Che asked.

"Like we pretend that you're applying for a job, and while Matthew is talking to you, Summer and I sneak into his room and find what we're looking for."

"That will never work," Che argued.

"Well, we're going to try it anyway, because I already told Matthew you were coming to talk to him about a job." Jessica looked out of the room where she stood at the door and straightened when she noticed something. "He's coming."

She rushed into the room, grabbed Che and pulled him out before Summer could interrupt or ask what was happening. She moved quickly, following them, but was stopped when the door slammed shut in her face. Not to be deterred, she stood on her toes, watching them through the peephole and listening through the door as Jessica introduced Che and suggested the guys go out for coffee together.

Jessica waved and watched them leave until the elevator doors closed behind them. Then she opened the door and ushered Summer out.

"All right, I'm not sure how long that's going to take, so we'll be safer if we just hurry up."

"Not a problem. So, how do we get in his—" Her eyes widened as Jessica pulled out a key and opened the hotel room door. "Where did you get that?"

"I've been booking the rooms, and Matthew happens to be sharing with Shawn right now."

"So, Shawn is on the plan."

"No," Jessica answered slowly.

"Then why would you have his room… Oh, you've been getting naughty while Matthew is out being creepy with the hot new girls."

"Okay…" Jessica answered as she blushed. "Not why we're here."

"Right. Some kind of proof." Summer sighed as she looked through the papers on Matthew's bed while trying to disturb them as little as possible so he wouldn't know she had been there. She cringed at some of the things she found, while trying to ignore the variations of ew and ooh that came from Jessica whenever she found something new of interest. Never, had she imagined that the fate of her career would come down to rifling through the possessions of a man who, for some reason, had a DVD of the Simple Life hidden among his luggage.

"Anything?" Jessica asked from the other side of the room.

"I don't even know what I'm looking fo—"

"What is it?" Jessica asked as she made a face at a pair of underwear before throwing it back in its suitcase.

"I think I've just found our proof."

* * *

He held out the flowers despite the confused look on her face that was a little too close to a scowl for his liking. He smiled.

"Summer?" she asked.

"Seth."

Taylor nodded. "Should have known."

"Summer didn't know anything about this," Ryan told her as he moved the flowers away from her, and then pushed them back toward her until she had no choice but to accept them from him. "So you shouldn't get mad at her if you're about to get mad at someone."

"I'm going to get mad at you if I decide to get mad at someone."

"I got you this as well," Ryan said as he handed her a plastic, red ball.

Taylor looked at it sceptically, and pulled out a keychain. "Thanks?"

"It's apparently a Cohen family tradition to give women objects that come from quarter machines, even if you don't necessarily win it."

"Summer's engagement ring," Taylor said with a nod.

"And Kirsten's. But that's not the point."

"Yes, what is the point, Ryan? Because the last time we spoke I thought we were still at an impasse. I thought you still hated me for what I had done and that you could only be my friend, nothing more, and that even that was a struggle for us. I thought that we were to remain status quo, and I—"

"I just wanted to talk."

"You just wanted to talk?"

"That's right," he told them both, reminding himself that that was why he was there, and that his presence had nothing to do with the tight jeans and form-fitting blouse she was wearing.

"Fantastique. Conversation with Ryan Atwood. Just what I've always wanted." She moved around a table and found a seat. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Literature," Ryan told her without missing a beat.

"Literature? Great. Read any Flaubert lately?"

"No, but I was scoping the web and I read about how this girl I was dating miscarried and never bothered to tell me."

Taylor's jaw dropped. She looked down at the table and began moving her utensils. "I thought you never read blogs. I thought you weren't into reading people's diaries because that's their personal lives and that you shouldn't be prying into things that people don't want to tell you right out."

"My roommate read a part to me and I got interested."

"How nice of him." Taylor bit her lip.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You wouldn't have wanted to believe me."

"I would have found it hard to believe you. I went through something a little too similar to this once before—"

"I know. Kristen told me." Taylor nodded her head patiently.

"Good. I just… I wish you had told me Taylor. Even if you had to move away and be apart from me for a while before you could. I wish you could have told me that you lost the baby. I wish I could have been there for you."

"I couldn't." She shook her head. "I felt guilty and I wanted you to make me feel even guiltier so I wouldn't have to do it for myself. I didn't want to have to think about it every day, so I ran away."

"You could have come back to me at any time."

He reached for her hand, but stopped before any contact was made. He knew what touching her hand would mean. He knew what it would do to them.

"You were so mad."

"I was." Ryan nodded. "I was at myself, because I figured I must have been doing something wrong if all the women in my life were getting rid of me when they thought they were carrying my children."

"All?"

"Two is enough. I mean, when Summer thought she was pregnant, she agreed to marry Seth. There's a difference."

"You didn't ask me to marry you."

He shrugged. "I thought about it. Seth even lent me… Oh shit, remind me to call Seth later."

"Okay…"

Ryan shook his head. "Anyway, I knew we weren't ready for that and that you didn't need me to get by. I knew that you'd be fine with us even if we weren't married."

"I'm sorry I lied," Taylor said, finally looking up to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry I was such a guy about it."

She smiled and flipped through her menu, hiding her face behind the cardboard.

"So, for future reference, are you still fine? I mean, can you still have kids and stuff?"

"Yeah," Taylor answered with a shy smile.

"That's good to know."

"I mean, physically my body can, but being single and all, it would be a little hard."

"Single?" Ryan asked. He leaned forward, stretching his arm. He didn't grab her hand, but opted rather to let his fingers trail along the skin of her arm, smiling at the goose bumps he knew would form there. "I don't remember us ever breaking up."

"You don't? And we've been faithful to each other all this time?"

"Different area codes don't count." He shrugged.

Taylor bit her bottom lip as she tried to keep a smile from cracking her cheeks. "You know, I'm sure the champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries we can order from room service at either of our hotels are as good as anything they serve here."

Ryan smiled his first genuine smile in a long time. "Grab a cab. I'll call Seth. There's no way I'm going to remember to call him once we get to the hotel room."

* * *

"Why do you have Summer's ring?" Seth asked as he moved around the house and toward the room that was usually Ryan's when he visited. He winced when his foot collided with a side table, but kept from making any noise as he had just managed to get Sophie to bed.

"You leant it to me when I thought about getting more serious with Taylor."

"Right. Whatever happened with that?"

"She got pregnant, told me she was going to get an abortion, lost the baby, never told me that part, and we kind of got mad at each other."

Seth chuckled, shaking his head as he moved around the room. "You can take the kid out of Chino…"

"Shut up, Seth. I'm trying to help you here."

"I know." He nodded as he opened the top drawer of the dresser and took out the plastic eyeball ring. "I appreciate that."

"I thought you would. Listen, I really have to go."

"Getting back together with Taylor?"

"Technically we never really broke up."

"So you can jump in the sac together right away?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Ryan answered with a nod. "Listen…"

"You have to go?"

"Kind of."

"I get it. Thanks for the help with the ring, man."

"Thanks for the help with Taylor. I'll see you in a few days."

"If not sooner."

"I'd ask you what that means, but I have to go."

Seth turned off his phone with a final shake of the head. He stared at the ring for a moment, and suddenly jumped when his ringer went off again.

"Shh," he answered.

"What?"

"Sophie just fell asleep and the last thing I want is for her to wake up again."

"She drag you around all day?" Sandy asked with a chuckle.

"I made the error of telling her that the day was all about her and that we could do whatever she wanted. If she could have stayed up longer to make me do more things, she would have, but thankfully she fell asleep in the car."

"You didn't leave her in the car, did you?"

"No, I didn't leave her in the car. I carried her to her bedroom."

"By yourself?"

"You're a funny guy, dad. Reason for calling?"

"Right," Sandy said with another laugh. "Your mother just wanted me to check in."

"My mother?"

"I might have been slightly worried as well. The last time we let you baby sit we came back to a daughter with a head full of peanut butter.

"It's not like I put it in her hair," Seth whined. "Anyway, have you found Aunt Hailey?"

"Yeah, we did. She's with your mother."

"How's she doing?"

"She's all right," Sandy told him, bobbing his head from his end of the phone line. "A little shaken up, but she's doing all right. She's pregnant, so she's adjusting."

"Isn't it a little weird that she was never pregnant before?"

"Seth…"

"I'm just saying… Anyway, I have a busy day tomorrow, so I better get my beauty rest."

"You have no idea what a busy day you'll have with that little sister of yours."

"Yeah. And to think that I turned out so normal."

"Normal? Sure… that's one way of looking at it. I'll talk to you tomorrow, son."

"Sure thing."

Seth hung up and took a deep breath. He looked down at the ring in his hand once again, and smiled.

* * *

"Where's your daughter?"

"AWOL once again. Why, did she take more of your money? Should I be handing you five dollars?" Julie asked with a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Kaitlyn never stole any of my money," Frank told her as he settled next to her on their bed.

"So you lied to me?"

"As much as you hid from me the fact that she borrowed your positive pregnancy test."

"She told you—"

Frank shook his head with a laugh. "Are you defending her or blaming her? She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Your eating habits are peculiar, but never to the point they are slowly become, and your temper is definitely going to get the better of us both if you're going to be like this the entire time you're pregnant."

"I become weepy later on."

"That sounds better."

Julie sighed as she pressed a button on the remote in her lap to turn off the television. "So why did you lie to me?"

"Because, I wasn't ready to give you this," Frank told her as he showed her the diamond ring he'd been holding behind his back.

"Kaitlyn's ring?"

"She needed proof that she was pregnant and that she was married."

"And she got that—"

"From my office desk where I'd been hiding it until I found the courage to ask you to marry me."

"To… you want me to…"

"I wanted to years ago when you announced that you were marrying the Bullit. I think that failure just spurred my fear this second time."

"You aren't going to leave me?" Julie asked, shaking her head as she tried to understand.

"No, sorry."

They paused for a moment, watching each other.

"Are you actually going to give me that ring?"

"Are you actually going to say yes?"

"Are you actually going to ask me?"

"The quicker we get through this, the fast I can go get us some ice cream."

Julie grabbed the ring, slid it onto her ring finger and grabbed Frank's face to give him a kiss all in the same moment.

"Great. I'm ready. Where's the food?"


	17. Chapter 17: Making up

As always, thanks for all the reviews. It's great.

Here's the next chapter. Finally, Kaitlin is back in the story even if just for part of one scene.

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* * *

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**Chapter 17: Making up**

"Wait, he was taking the money?"

"That's right," Summer told Shawn with a smile.

"And he was blaming you for it?"

"He had to blame someone." She shrugged. "I always thought it was weird that he never let me see the incoming budgets until after he'd spent a few days with them, but I guess if he was skimming off the top and making it look like everything was still there, it makes sense. Besides, I should have known there was something wrong when he kept talking about all the things he could buy his girlfriends. A GEORGE salary isn't enough to spoil a girl, and he talked badly about Newport kids too many times to be a trust-fund kid."

"The guy's a dick," Jessica interrupted. "He got you fired and almost made it so you wouldn't have a reference after all that time you put in. He deserves whatever he gets."

"Yeah, but guys like him never do get what they deserve."

"Don't worry about that," Che told them with a nod of the head. "Karma always comes around."

They looked at him sceptically.

"Plus I have a lawyer in the family who's looking at the case and says Matthew is going down, if that helps."

"It definitely does," Summer said with a laugh. "So when are you—"

"Excuse me."

All three turned at the sound of the new voice. Summer's eyes narrowed as she watched the woman who had just decided her future a few moments ago. The woman offered a smile as she tugged at the end of her black blazer and then pushed away strands of hair that weren't actually loose from her hairclip.

"Yes?" Summer asked.

"I just wanted to apologize once again for this catastrophe. We found it hard to believe when Matthew told us that one of our volunteers who had been working here for such a long time would have cheated us, but we aren't on the road with you and we'd never met you, Summer, so it was really hard to take your word over his."

"I understand," Summer nodded. "I'm just happy it all worked out."

"Well, it didn't exactly."

Summer's face fell. "What?"

"We can't keep Matthew on staff, and with him gone, we have another vacant position we'll need to fill."

"Right..."

"So we wanted to offer it to you."

"What?" Summer asked in surprise.

"We wanted to offer you the role of director. No one knows the job or the organisation like you do, and we already know you work well on the road… You are the perfect candidate."

"Oh my God," Jessica breathed.

"What do you say, Miss Roberts?"

Summer started back until she could find her words. "I'm… I'm flattered, really I am. But I'm not going back on the road again. I'm sorry, but I am tired of living out of a bus. I may not be the little princess I once was, but I want hot showers every day, and a pool, and a mall close by, and more clothes than fit into one suitcase." She shook her head with a shrug. "I can't accept. I'd be miserable."

"We have other positions..." The woman smiled.

"There is no position that would convince me to get back on that bus."

"No, I mean we have other positions in our organisation that do not require you to travel." The woman smiled. "We have people across the country who work in offices from 9 to 5 and help coordinate our efforts. They aren't volunteers. We're talking real jobs with real salaries, though not necessarily that high a salary."

"If I want money, I'll have my fiancé write another comic book," Summer laughed. "So, where do you have openings?"

"I'm pretty sure we could find an opening for someone like you anywhere in the country, Miss Roberts. Anywhere in particular you want to live?"

"Summer doesn't know where—"

Summer interrupted Che with a fist to his gut.

"Actually," she answered with a grin. "I know exactly where I want to be."

* * *

"Whoa."

"Yeah."

"Make-up sex that's more than a year overdue is insane."

"I'm surprised we survive," Ryan told her between pants. "Though, we did have sex just a few weeks ago."

"That was heat of the moment sex. This was make-up sex, and it was amazing. Better than Dean Hess, better than Su—"

"Okay, I don't think we need to go through the whole list. It was better; we've got it. I don't want to hear the names."

Taylor giggled as she tilted her head to kiss Ryan's chin. "What about if I just say it was the best?"

"That I can live with."

They lay next to each other a while longer as Taylor moved until her head was resting on Ryan's outstretched arms.

"So, we're just a couple again?"

"I guess. Unless you want to go through a lot of guesswork and hemming and hawing and being insecure and—"

"We're back together," Taylor told him, turning toward him again so she could plant a kiss against his neck. "Remind me to thank Seth for setting this up."

"Seth, damn. He must be freaking out right now about him and Summer."

"He and Summer are fine," Taylor argued.

"What are you talking about? She left the state because his proposal wasn't romantic enough. He's going crazy with worry that she's not going to marry him."

"Summer's not mad at him."

"But you told Seth she was."

"Well I had to tell him something. Summer didn't want him to know that she was being blackmailed by her ex-boss because she wouldn't sleep with him and so he ruined her name so she had to leave GEORGE early and wouldn't get a good recommendation, and therefore probably never finding a decent job."

"What? I'm gonna kick that guy's—"

"Yeah, wait a sec." Taylor held up a finger and reached for her ringing cell phone on the night table. Her eyes widened as she looked at the caller ID. "Speak of the devil. Hey, Summer."

Ryan leaned forward to get a better sense of her conversation.

"That's great. I'm so happy everything worked out… So what about… Fired? And sued? That's even more fantastic… But I thought you didn't want to work for GEORGE anymore… Really? Seth will be so happy... You're leaving tonight to tell him?" She looked at Ryan who suddenly shook his head and hands wildly. "What? Wait, Ryan, what are you doing?"

He grabbed the phone from her and brought it to his ear.

"Summer?"

"Ryan?"

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Fine. How much of that did you just hear?"

"More than you would like, but I already kneow all about the evil, lecherous boss. Listen, we were actually going to go over and see you tonight, because we promised Seth we would call him all together, and he's just going to get suspicious if we don't do that."

"What?"

"Where are you? We'll be over as soon as we can get there," Ryan told her, sitting up quickly as though he would rush out of the room despite being completely naked.

"I'm at the Hilton, but Ryan—"

"Have you bought your tickets home yet?"

"No, I was just going to—"

"Hold off on that too. I wouldn't want you to buy tickets and then miss your flight. Just stay there. We'll be right over."

He hung up before she could protest.

"Ryan, what are you doing?" Taylor asked as he handed her the phone.

"Seth's coming over to propose with the glow-in-the-dark ring. He's probably already on his way over."

"I thought he was watching Sophie."

"Kaitlin owed me a favour."

Taylor nodded slowly. "So, we have to get to Summer and stop her from leaving the state?"

"That's right."

"Do you think we might have a little time to ourselves before we have to get over there?"

"I told her we'd be there right away."

"Ryan," Taylor whispered as her fingers moved against his skin beneath the sheets. "Do you think we have a little time before she starts getting suspicious?"

"Well, we are trying to delay her, right? So the longer before we get there…"

"It might be a while before we get there," Taylor agreed as she pushed Ryan flat on the bed.

* * *

"Seth we're… Kaitlin?"

"Hey Cohens," Kaitlin greeted with a smile as she rounded the corner.

"What are you doing here, Kaitlin?"

"Seth had to go take care of things with Summer. I owed Ryan a favour, and apparently this is how he decided to use it."

"Is he still chasing after that girl?" Hailey asked as she dropped her bags on the floor.

"I think they take turns chasing each other," Sandy told Hailey. "It depends on who was the last to screw up."

Kirsten smiled. "Needless to say, Seth's usually the one screwing up."

"Serves him right for hooking up with a newpsie," Hailey said as she shook her head.

"Hey, that's my future daughter-in-law you're talking about there," Sandy scolded, moving toward the kitchen.

"Daughter-in-law?"

"Don't mind him," Kirsten said, waving Sandy away. "Ever since Summer became an activist, she's been Sandy's favourite. There's a good chance he would disown Seth and adopt Summer should the boy ever do anything bad enough to end this relationship."

"Lovely."

"So, Kaitlin," Kirsten said as she turned her attention to the girl standing before her, "where's our daughter?"

"She's playing hide and seek with Frank," Kaitlin told Kirsten.

"Aren't you supposed to be looking for them?"

"Eventually," Kaitlin shrugged. "But this keeps them quiet for a while, and they've been running around like little monsters all morning, so I figured I'd wait an hour or two before finding them."

"Kaitlin…"

"Fine," she said with a roll of her eyes as she headed toward the living room. "By the way, my mother and Frank will be here in two days for the graduation party. My mom said it might as well be an engagement party as well."

"He asked her?"

"And she said yes," Kaitlin shrugged. "Or at least I'm guessing she did. I think they were both preoccupied when I called. It was totally disturbing."

"Wait, wha—" Kirsten sighed as Kaitlin left the room.

"So, Julie Cooper-Nichol sunk her claws into another one?" Hailey asked, moving toward the kitchen.

"It would seem so."

"Who'd she bewitch this time?"

"Ryan's father actually." Kirsten shrugged when Hailey's eyes widened. "It's a long story."

"For later, I guess." Hailey sighed as she grabbed an apple from the counter. "Listen, seriously though, I really appreciate what you two are doing for me. I know I'm not the easiest person to live with, and I think it's great that you're opening your home to me and taking me in again. I promise that as soon as I find a job and land on my feet, you'll have your house back to yourself." She smiled at Kirsten and Sandy as she picked up her backpack. "I'm going to go take a shower."

Sandy waved as his sister-in-law left the room.

"Staying with us?" he asked Kirsten.

"She had nowhere else to go, Sandy."

"First Julie now this."

"You're the one who found her. You're as much to blame about this as I am."

"Good-bye coffee. Good-bye orange juice. Good-bye peace of mind."

"Maybe she'll baby-sit," Kirsten told him with a shrug.

"You keep that woman away from my child."

"Okay, Sandy…" Kirsten laughed, moving in to shut her husband up the surest way she knew how.

* * *

"It's about time. I'm starving and you guys are… Seth?"

Summer started back when she spotted Seth in front of the door, kneeling before her.

"Summer, I realise I've somehow screwed up yet again, and I know that my proposal was nowhere near as romantic as you wanted it to be, but please believe me when I tell you that I meant to ask you to marry me just as much as I would have if I had taken you to the Empire State Building and ridden all the way to the top and gotten on my knees with violins playing and fireworks in the air." He stuck his hand in his front pocket and pulled out the ring he'd finally found. "So, please forgive me and believe me when I ask again, will you marry me?"

Summer's eyes travelled the hallway in confusion before she let them settle on Seth. "I'm mad at you?"

"Taylor said you were mad at me."

"Oh." Summer nodded her head quickly. "Then I'm mad at you. Hey, it's my ring."

She reached out and grabbed it from him, placing it on her finger and pushing her hand away so she could get a better look.

"I was hoping to see this again some day."

"I also got you the one you really wanted," Seth told her as he held out the more expensive ring. "So, not to be un-romantic, but what do you say? Will you marry me?"

Summer took a deep breath and let her shoulders slump. "Under one condition."

"Anything."

She ducked into the room and came back out holding papers. "As long as you sign this contract and accept the job in Berkeley."

"Hey," Seth nodded slowly, finally rising to his feet. "Look what you found."

"Sorry. I thought I was going through your sketches."

"Because you usually go through my sketches?"

"Yes."

"All of them?" Seth asked slowly.

"Yes, I've seen the naughty ones, Seth. I was pretty much expecting it from you."

"Great." He blushed and reached for the papers to have something else to distract him. "But, what about you? I mean, what if I accept this job, and then you get a kick ass job offer in another town."

"I have a job," Summer shrugged.

"You do? Where?"

"Anywhere I want. Including," she told him as she pushed a pen in his direction, "Berkeley."

"Really? And you wouldn't mind leaving Newport?"

"I haven't lived in Newport for a long time, Seth. Plus, I want to be close to my family."

"Your dad lives in New York, Summer."

"And he's old and barely has time for me and lives with the stepmonster. But my second family—Sandy and Kirsten and Ryan and Sophie—they're all in Berkeley waiting for me."

"Really?"

"Yes, but listen," Summer said as she moved forward and grabbed Seth's shirt collar. "If we're going to be married, we have to be honest with each other, Seth. I can't be finding out about job offers from hoochies like Samantha."

"Sam—"

"Don't ask. She has your cell phone by the way."

"All right," Seth agreed, dropping a kiss on her forehead. "No more secrets."

"Great. So sign these papers and I'll tell you why I'm really in New York. Hopefully I'll have time to tell you before Ryan and Taylor show up."

"Ryan and Taylor are still making up. Don't worry. We've got plenty of time. In fact, if we wanted to make up…"

"Sign!" Summer sighed as she pulled him into the room. "We'll negotiate the terms after."


	18. Epilogue: There's always at least one

So this is it. We're done. I'm going to miss this story so much.

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed or commented. 100 pieces of feedback is awesome.

I hope you enjoyed. See you at the next story.

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* * *

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**Epilogue: There's always at least one party**

"So, meddler," Taylor said as she sidled up next to Kaitlin, "did it all go according to plan?"

"Me?" Kaitlin returned, her eyes wide and innocent. "I have no idea what you're talking about.

"Sure. Don't think I don't know that you were in on this whole Taylor and Ryan reunion."

Kaitlin shrugged. "I was bored. What can I say?"

"Well your timing was way off."

"What do you mean?"

"Just look around," Taylor told the girl, hand waving toward the crowded Cohen backyard.

Frank and Sandy were standing at the grill, remembering every once in a while to look over at the meat cooking on the hot surface. Kirsten, Hailey and Julie sat at the patio table, Kirsten shaking her head as Julie pointed to various pages in the wedding magazines she'd picked up in the last few weeks while Hailey ignored both. Across the yard, Summer and Ryan sat on lounge chairs, Pancakes on Summer's lap as they discussed Flapjacks latest antics. The girls couldn't see Seth, but they could hear Sophie and Kevin shrieking with delight from inside the house, and had no doubt that he was putting one of the many skills he'd learned at camp Takahoe to good use.

"What about it?"

"Everyone's happy. This is a celebration for graduations, jobs and engagements. You have all summer to be bored now."

Kaitlin shrugged. "I'll think of something. Besides, I need an excuse to call Colin again, and my dad has been talking about how he's getting lonely in Hawaii by himself."

"What does that…" Taylor's voice faded as she followed Kaitlin's fixed stare until her eyes met Hailey's bored expression.

"I've only begun to have fun," Kaitlin told her with a wide smile before she headed over to the table of women.

Taylor laughed as she shook her head. "I think that's the case for most of us."


End file.
